It Took Everything
by Rainpebbles
Summary: Impala Series Part:VIII After a horrible explosion rocks through the ship, the crew finds themselves in a very bad situation. With some of his crew on the brink of death, Dean had to decide whether to abandon his beloved ship, or die with her. While trying to save everyone, Dean reflects on all that brought him there. Sabriel and Almost there Destiel.
1. Chapter 1

Notes:Welcome to the eighth installment of the Impala Series! Whooo! This story is broken up into present, day before, and past memories so it might get a little confusing, so pay attention to the bold time indications! Good luck! And I offer hugs to all of those who suffer through hurt/comforts, just saying.

ship. me: I cried! I really did! Gah, it killed me basically because she _is _me *sobbing* And I am so pleased that you enjoyed the "deepness" of it all! Not many fanfictions go that far so I was worried that I was crossing some unwritten rule. So many huggles to you though! I do hope that you like this story! Enjoy ;)

Disclaimer: *gross sobbing*

* * *

Chapter 1

_**PRESENT**_

It was dark. It was cold enough for frost to start to cling to the metal panels of the ship and each and every breath to appear in front of you. It was quiet. Each room was empty and carried the promise of an echo should any sound be made.

There was no comforting warm glow from the ship's turbine as it sat still, silent and dark. The once animated, almost living machinery now looked like nothing more than rusted old metal that looked frigid to the touch. The walls were scorched with soot, almost as if the fires of hell had gone off through the room in a damning wave of flare.

Through the passenger and crew quarters belongings and other contents appear to have been strewn over the hallways. Not a single person in sight.

The entire cargo hold echoed with the loud thud from Dean as he fell to the metal flooring. His face was ashen, his were clothes soaked through with sweat. His harsh breathing could be heard through the large room. There were no other sounds to answer back. No crew to come to his aid. Dean was completely and utterly alone.

Weakly he tried to lift his head from the cold surface. As his cheek roughly grated across the floor he thought he heard voices in the distance. Somewhere in the back of his mind he knew that it was impossible for there to be anyone else there. Perhaps these were the hallucinations that Sam warned him about.

As he crawled along the floor towards the stairs, the voices became louder and he felt himself get lost in memory as he struggled to remain conscious.

* * *

_**FIVE YEARS AGO**_

"_A fine young man like yourself, just starting out? How about I take off another 250 credits?"_

"_I'm not sure it's the one I want."_

"_Oh, but she's a real beauty, ain't she? A right smart purchase, this vessel. Tell you what, you buy this ship, treat her proper, she'll be with ya for the rest of your life."_

* * *

"_Well, what do you think?" Dean had his hands placed proudly on his hips as he stood before his brother. He had just brought Sam into his ship for the first time and was eagerly waiting to hear the praise from Sam for finding this magnificent boat. However, Sam's expression was far from impressed. _

_Sam pulled his long arms in tight around him, as if disgusted at the thought of any part of him touching the dusty walls of the vessel, "You paid money for this? On purpose?"_

_Dean's smile fell, "No, I'm being serious here, Sammy. What do you think of her?"_

"_Actually, Dean…I think you got robbed."_

_Dean scoffed offended, "This is the one I want. She's perfect!"_

_Now it was Sam's turn to scoff, "Oh yeah, you know something about ships?"_

_Dean froze for a moment, a weak smile ghosted over his features. He knew plenty about ships. Sam knew that. Their dad had taught them everything he knew about almost every type of vessel. Whenever John Winchester started to talk about some of the old ships he used to work on as a mechanic, before…everything…it was almost magical to see how the fond memories would light up his shadowed face._

_Looking back up at Sam, Dean smiled arrogantly, "This is a great ship, Sammy. 327 four barrel, 275,000,000 horses. A little TLC and this thing is cherry. And…I kind of promised someone that I would buy a ship and…this is the one that I want."_

_Sam raised an eyebrow an scanned the interior of the cargo hold again._

"_C'mon, Sam. This is the ship of a lifetime! Trust me, this thing is still gonna be badass forty years from now."_

_Yet another bitch face as Sam lightly kicks the paneling to his left, makind the rusted metal crumble._

"_Okay, so maybe she won't be winning any beauty contests anytime soon. But she is solid…in most places. I'm telling you, ships like this…they'll be with you 'til the day you die."_

"_That's because it's a deathtrap, Dean," whined Sam as he turned back to his brother. The war had only just ended a few months before and Sam was not ready to start risking his and Dean's lives again so soon. He didn't entirely understand his brother's need to buy this vessel. They had been planning on just finding work somewhere and trying to settle down, to find a place where they could pretend they hadn't lost the war. Dean would be a mechanic, Sam would try and finish school…._

"_C'mon, Sam! She could be beautiful after we fix her up a bit! You have no imagination!"_

_Sam smirked, "I imagine that's so, Dean."_

_Rolling his eyes Dean grabbed at Sam's freakishly long arm and pulled him further into the ship, "Just come with me. You haven't even seen the rest of it. And please try to see past what she is, and focus on what she can be. My baby is going to be the best." He stated proudly._

"_And what can she be, Dean?"_

_His brother paused at the foot of the stairs, and took a moment before replying, "Freedom, that's what."_

_The confession hit Sam hard. The raw emotion in Dean's voice was enough to give him pause and reconsider his views on this ship. With the Garrison now fully in charge of everything and breathing down their necks because they were on the losing side…the brothers had started to feel trapped. Maybe this is what they needed, more than a lack luster job and forced obedience._

_Dean continued to talk as they moved further into the ship. Sam hadn't heard his brother talk this much, and with this much happiness for years. Probably long before they had joined the war…maybe even longer. It brought a smile to Sam's face and he scanned the ship again with new eyes, trying to appreciate it for his brother's sake._

"_I'll tell ya, Sam, we find ourselves a mechanic, get her running again. Hire a good pilot. Maybe even a cook. We could live like real people. Small crew, just whoever we need, and we'll never be under anybody's radar ever again. No matter how long the arm of the Garrison might get, we'll just get ourselves a little further out."_

"_Get her running again? It's not running now?"_

_The soon to be Captain paused and gave his brother an awkward smile, "Well, we can work on her for the simple stuff, then we find a mechanic for the heavy stuff. She will fly again, I promise."_

_Sam nodded placatingly and they moved further into the ship, their voices echoing off the metal panels as they walked down a hallway and over a rickety catwalk that Sam just knew he was going to hate and avoid at all costs in the future._

"_Oh, and I already know what I'm going to call her. Got a name all picked out…."_

* * *

_**PRESENT**  
_

His face was tight in pain as the memory faded away and he was brought back to excruciating reality. He found himself at the foot of the stairs, curled up in on himself and wondering how he had gotten there while he was off in la la land. He steeled himself for what he had to do next and held his breath as he grabbed at the railings above him and pulled himself up.

Maybe it was because he knew he was alone, or maybe because he really couldn't smother it, but Dean gasped loudly in pain and whimpered as he finally righted himself against the stairs. As he stood there trying to catch his breath he watched as several blood drops fell down from where he held his hand against his lower abdomen. His eyes trailed their descent down through the cold air until they splattered on the grated steps. The sight fascinated him more than it scared him, and that's how Dean knew that he was in trouble.

With a mighty effort and grunt, Dean lifted his foot onto the first step and started his long climb up the stairs. Right now, however, this task was more daunting than going into battle with the Garrison all those years before.

As his foot hit the second step, another drop of blood fell down and landed on his boot.

"_Push",_ thought Dean.

* * *

Ah, yes. The flashbacks. Now we get to see how the rest of the crew came to be aboard the Impala and how Dean had gotten himself into such a sticky situation. Next chappie up tomorrow and I promise it'll be a lot longer than this one ;)


	2. Chapter 2

Notes: Okay, a little bit of fun before I slap you all in the face with some plot. Enjoy!

ship. me: You picked out my favorite line in that whole chapter! Yay! Good golly gosh, you're awesome! =D

Rhiotre: I really do hope that you like this story! It's been one of my fave's to write so far. Lotsa drama n' such . And thank you for your comments on the last story. My goal was to make readers think and I'm so happy that it seemed to do so :) Hearts!

Thank you to my guest reviewer! I'm so happy that you are liking the series :)

Disclaimer: This haunts me to admit, but I don't own any of this.

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CHAPTER 2

_**NIGHT BEFORE**_

"Gabriel, I seem to be having difficulties. Are you sure that this is…necessary?"

His older brother rolled his eyes dramatically, "It's a time honored tradition, Cassy-baby. And I'm sure he'll be appreciative to the effort you put in."

Castiel nodded and tried again at his project only to get even more tape stuck to his fingers. Frustrated he tried to wave it off his hand, but it held fast, "Why must we hide what we give someone? The whole procedure is ludicrous. I have to put in effort wrapping this gift, then the receiver has to go through the effort of opening it, which I might add includes ripping up the hard work I put in wrapping it in the first place, and then you end up with multitudes of dead trees and messy floors all for the sake of hiding something for a few moments longer. This entire _tradition_ is an economic waste of time and resources."

He felt his brother's hand ruffled through his hair as he mumbled about how cute he got when he was frustrated. Castiel scowled and continued his attempts to fold a book into the outdated star map paper. His finished results looked like a big crumpled up sort of square shaped paper ball with tape covering every flap and crease. Glancing over to where Gabriel was taping up his own crudely wrapped present, Castiel scowl deepened.

Gabriel smirked as he looked over his brother's shoulder to see his progress, "Wow, Cassy-bear. Good job. He'll never know what it is. That takes skill when wrapping a book. Everyone knows what a book looks like wrapped, but you seem to have miraculously bypassed that issue."

"The purpose of this exercise is to hide the objects identity from the receiver, am I correct?" Cas asked darkly.

Merrily Gabriel chirped back, "Yuppers!"

"Then why does your gift still hold its shape?"

Gabriel looked down at the obvious bottle of alcohol wrapped up tightly in paper, "Huh…I guess it is kinda obvious….but who cares! It's the thought that counts, right?" he asked slapping Castiel's back with a laugh. The eldest Novak smiled fondly as he took another look over to Cas' spectacular wrapping job. There was a bitter sweet pang in his chest as he recalled how they went through this exact same conversation, exact same motions every year together when Balthazar's birthday rolled around. Neither of them ever got better at wrapping, and Castiel always grouched about the silliness of wrapping presents in the first place. He had played this whole song and dance in his head for the seven years he had been at the Host. He would lay down in his cell, staring at the ceiling picturing Castiel fumbling with the tape and getting a piece stuck in his hair that he didn't notice. He would imagine Balthazar's struggles to open the over-abundantly taped-up package while trying to not get too frustrated so that Castiel would feel bad. He tried every year to not think about what they were doing now the Gabriel wasn't there, but for seven years he failed.

Now here he was, after twelve long years away from his brothers, he was able to celebrate something as simple as a birthday again. He flinched when he thought of how the Castiel at his side at this moment reminded him more of his eight year old brother than the studious fifteen year old he had left behind so long ago. The passage of time was a natural thing, but there was nothing natural about how his little brother had come to be like this.

"Gabriel?"

Castiel's tentative voice broke him out of the dark memories and Gabriel's head snapped up and he offered a small smile.

"What's up, Cassy?"

"Is it time to light the already cooked food on fire?"

The oldest Novak chuckled and picked up his and Cas' packages, "Not yet, baby brother. Gotta have dinner first. Let's go hide these in the kitchen before everyone gathers. We want it to be a surprise, right?" And the pilot guided his brother out of the control room and moved them towards the dining area.

Even though he didn't say anything, Gabriel could feel Castiel hesitantly brushing through his mind, probably sensing his distressed memories. Gabriel offered a small smile, trying to assure his little brother that he was fine, but damn him and his searching all knowing gaze, Cas didn't look the least bit convinced.

He did however subtly slip his slender hand into Gabriel's calloused one as they walked together, squeezing gently as if offering his own assurance that they were here and they were still together.

* * *

The wrapping must have taken a bit longer that Gabriel had initially thought when they made it to the dining area only to have everyone already gathered and dinner almost all but done. The crew members were all in the throes of laughter as Bobby was gasping out a story in between his own bellowing laughs.

Nobody noticed as Gabriel and Cas snuck in and quickly hid their held objects behind the counter. Once the parcels were hidden they moved over to the table.

Sam's entire face was aglow with happiness as he shook his head at Bobby, "No way! That can't be true!"

The preacher's whole body was shaking along with his chuckles, "I swear that it is!"

"Surely one of you must have told him!" giggle Anna. Her normal perfect posture was destroyed as she was practically doubled over in light and lovely laughter.

Bobby threw his hands up in the air, "No! Not one among the brethren had the heart to say anything. He was so _proud_."

The crew burst out in laughter anew, Balthazar going red faced and slapping the table enthusiastically. Gabriel and Cas exchanged confused looks. The pilot surged towards the table, eager to get in on the story.

"What? What was he proud of? Who he?" he asked eagerly.

The crew seemed to ignore him and Bobby continued to narrate, "I'll tell you, truth is it looked rather natty."

Another explosion of laughter. Subtly Castiel slithered into his seat next to Dean, completely transfixed with the sight of the Captain so happy. Sure he had seen Dean happy many times, and had even had the pleasure of causing a few laughs, but seeing the Captain this relaxed, this content…it never got old. Gabriel was far too anxious to get in on the joke to even notice.

"What was natty? I want to hear about the natty thing." As he sat down next to Sam he reached for one of the serving bowls…only to find it empty. The crew around him were starting to gain control of themselves again and the laughter had been reduced to sporadic chuckles.

Chuck seemed to take pity on the pilot, "Bobby was just telling us funny stories about his life at the monastery." He still had a bright smile on his face, Castiel noticed with surprise. The mechanic had felt…gray for the last few weeks. This smile was like a speck of sun peeking out from the dark clouds that had surrounded his being. Castiel closed his eyes and basked in it.

Gabriel snorted softly, "Monastic humor. I miss out on all the fun…and all the food too, apparently. That's just shiny," he added bitterly spotting yet another empty serving bowl.

Next to him Sam dramatically rolled his eyes and reached for a plate on the counter, covered daintily with a napkin, "Just what kind of monster do you take me for?...Voila!" With a flourish he ripped away the napkin to reveal a plate piled high with all of the dinner fixings. It was still warm too. Gabriel dreamily looked up at Sam and gently placed a kiss on his lips.

"I love my Sasquatch," he said fondly and tore into the food. Meg made puking noises off to the side.

Castiel watched the scene with a happy smile from across the table until a similarly stacked plate blocked his view as Dean presented it to him with the same flourish and smile, "Don't think that we would forget you. Eat up, dude."

Turning back to his now regularly breathing crew, Dean got back to business, "So, Gabe. We got a course set yet?"

Between giant scoopfuls of powdered potatoes and protein mush, Gabriel nodded and answered, "We do indeedaroo! It took a little creative navigating, but we should make it all the way to Greenleaf without running afoul of any Garrison patrols…Or a single living soul, for that matter," he added as an after thought.

Satisfied, Dean leaned back and nodded in appreciation, "Good. That's the way it should be."

Gabriel half scrunched up his face in mild disagreement, "I suppose, but of course what should have been an 18 hour trip is now going to take us the better part of a week by this route."

But the Captain waved it off lazily with his hand like batting away a moderately bothersome bug, "We're in no rush. I like an easy languorous journey." The whole crew internally agreed wholeheartedly. They were beginning to wonder if it was even possible for this crew to not fall into trouble on a trip.

Everyone remained at the table as the two latecomers finished their meals, continuing the conversation around them. When they had finally finished Sam rose from his chair to collect the plates, knowing that it was his turn to wash the dishes that week. Seemingly in a giving mood, Gabriel popped up to assist while speaking over his shoulder to Balthazar.

"It's your turn, brother. Sheppard told a funny story about being a preacher. Now you get to tell a funny story from your party days. I'll tell you guys, he has met some really interesting characters." Truthfully, for all of his brother's social skill, Balthazar was not always the best at telling stories. Gabriel was just trying to find a way to distract him as he snuck into the kitchen under the guise of helping Sam to see about the "cake".

Meg snorted, "Yeah, 'cause rich snobs are just hi-larious."

Balthazar ignored her and only seemed mildly surprised at the request, but he brushed it off and instead turned to Anna, "Now, Anna, my dear. I wager you have some bloody funny stories to tell."

Anna's smile lit up and she smiled sweetly, "Oh! Do I ever! Funny and sexy. You have no idea…and you never will."

Meg snorts again.

Placing a heartbroken expression upon his face, Balthazar let out a pitiful whine, "Of course I become friends with the classiest Companion in the 'verse and she doesn't even want to share her juicy stories. The ones from back home offered such gossip…" he trailed off wistfully.

Said Companion shrugged helplessly, "I don't discuss my clients."

From the kitchen Gabriel called out, "Oh, come on! We're family here. What's wrong with some curiosities to our sister's sexual activities? And who would even know?"

She smirked, "Well, first of you would know. And a Companion doesn't kiss and tell," she teased.

Dean feigned surprise, "So there is kissing, then?" Anna shrugged, failing at hiding the smirk on her face. Awkwardly Bobby cleared his throat.

Beside him, Dean noticed as Cas started to fidget in his seat, seemingly impatient about something. He placed his hand on Cas' bouncing leg to still him and raised a questioning eyebrow, "Everything okay, buddy?"

Turning his head slowly, Cas sighed dramatically, "I was wondering if the unnecessary fire had been lit yet. I want to see Balthazar be surprised when he tears apart the paper that took me an hour to wrap. Apparently you have to blow out the fire before you get the surprise," he said loudly enough for the whole table to hear. In the kitchen Dean could hear Gabriel facepalm. Then the pilot came out of the kitchen carrying aloft a ship-made birthday cake lit up with several mismatched candles that had been borrowed from Anna's shuttle. Across the top of it were the words "It Is Your Birthday" written in Cas' handwriting. The candles were a bit on the thick side, so they could only fit about four of them, and the cake may have been slowly collapsing on one side, but the sight lit up Balthazar's face…even if Cas had sort of spoiled the surprise innocently.

Gabriel chuckled as he moved up to the table, "Here ya go, bro! Cassy and I must have forgotten to practice the art of stealth before dinner, but whatever. Happy birthday." And he set the "cake" in front of the beaming Novak. All around the table were more enthusiastic and varied shouts of congratulations.

A deadpan Cas added his own version, "Yes. It is your special day…along with approximately 180,000,000,000 people in the known occupied planets."

For once, Balthazar seemed at a loss for words, "Well this is…how…what the hell is this made of?" He asked finally, getting a good look at the consistency of the offered confectionary.

Gabriel bit his lip and glanced over to Castiel, "Um, I know that you'll like it. Cassy-bear made it for you with a little help from Bobby." Actually Bobby had mostly just come in and tried to rescue the monstrosity of a cake batter that Castiel had somehow concocted. It wasn't pretty, but they managed to not burn down the kitchen, and as an extra plus the mixture actually rose in the oven to appear somewhat cake-like.

Bobby looked a little sheepish, "We couldn't get a hold of any flour, so it's mostly protein…Actually, it's pretty much what we just had for supper. But Gabriel donated some of this chocolate stash to try and get the "frosting" as chocolatey tasting as possible, so…" He glanced at Balthazar, as if daring him to say anything poorly about his and Castiel's efforts. But the middle Novak was anything but repulsed by the description. Instead he looked close to tears, truly moved by the whole thing.

Castiel perked up when Gabriel then brought forward the two wrapped parcels, and then the pilot moved to stand behind his two brothers, a hand on one of each of their shoulders. Sam and Dean both warmed at the sight of the three united brothers just happy to be together. Then they watched as Cas eagerly he moved his chair closer to his brothers so that he could get a good look at Balthazar's expression as he desecrated his wrapping to find the present inside. Balthazar had seen this behavior many times when they were younger. Castiel hated waiting for the cake and candle bit to finally get to the presents part. Feeling indulgent to his little brother, he reached for the present he knew to be from Castiel judging by the degree of difficulty it would be to open it. He knew it was worth it to open the gift first going by how Castiel practically bounced out of his seat in excitement.

It took several minutes, and borrowing a knife from Dean to finally open the wrappings to see that it was a book, probably one of the ones that Cassy had acquired in the last few months on their little adventures. The very second that the wrapping opened to reveal the contents, Castiel dove into a description.

"It's a book. I chose it because there were some chapters in it that had very descriptive sex scenes. I know that you enjoy those. Then I ripped out the last page of it, so that it will never end. I hate it when books end, so I thought you might like a never ending book," he rushed out in one breath. All around the table the crew eyes widened at the summary of the gift before shaking their heads, amused that Castiel could still excel at awkward after all this time.

"Thank you. I'm really…I'm really deeply moved. Thank you, Cassy," there was no placating tone to his voice. It sounded so genuine that Dean for whatever reason felt it necessary to look over to his own brother and smile at him. Apparently Sam felt the same and had also turned to smile back.

Seemingly fed up with the family happy gussy moment, Meg grunted, "Yes, yes. Well just deeply move yourself back to the cake and blow out the candles so I can have a slice before it gets coated in wax."

Balthazar smiled, not at all affected by Meg's sour personality and leaned forward to blow out the candles. Just as he puffed up his cheeks, a deep and loud resounding noise erupts from somewhere in the ship. It was followed by a terrible grinding sound from back near the engine room. The lights in the room dimmed and flickered. Then they all listened as the constant rumble of the engine stopped….

They all held their breath in silence until another loud crank is heard and the familiar rumble returned.

"What the hell was that?" Asked a startled Meg.

A wide eyed Chuck moved to get up, "Um, maybe just a hiccup. I'll go check it out."

But Sam was already by the door leading out, "I'll check it out on my way up to the control room. I'll call down if something looks wonky," he offered and turned to walk out the door.

"I'll come with. I wanna see what's up," added Gabriel and also turned to the door.

Meanwhile Castiel was staring at the cake, a deepening crease forming between his eyes.

"Fire…"he whispered.

Balthazar and Dean glanced at him and then at each other and then back to the cake, noting the still burning candles.

"Oh, right," mumbled Balthazar and leaned in again to blow out the candles just as Sam stepped up to the door.

They all felt it more than heard it happen. Suddenly the ship vibrated like it was suffering from its own planet-quake and all around them plates and cups shook on the table. The vibration grew worse and felt as if it was coming closer to them like a looming storm.

Then Sam saw a giant fireball coming straight at him from the hallway that led to the engine room. Like a deer stunned into a frozen state he could only watch as the flame flew right at him, but Gabriel's Host induced instincts kicked in and flew forward in an instant and lunged at Sam as the giant ball of fire roils into the corridor, shoving Sam clear of the doorway. But the fireball had come too fast and Gabriel was knocked back hard by the concussion of the blast, his whole body slamming into the hard counter and then rebounding into the wall with a sickening crunch of bone heard even over the blast.

The pilot lay there, completely still.

* * *

Gah, my apologies! Looks like I'm back to those horrendous cliffies . Next chapter up tomorrow whenever my classes finish!


	3. Chapter 3

Notes: I love you guys. That is all.

ship. me: Please enjoy luvey ;)

Leahelisabeth: I'll be sure to add as much Sam anguish as possible in the future chapters! I promise! :) And I may have some plans for Sam in a later episode...*innocent whistling*

Disclaimer: If it t'were that I owned this magnificent thing, t'would be t'werific. But it t'is not so, so it t'is t'weragic.

* * *

CHAPTER 3

_**Night Before**_

"Gabriel!" Several voices screamed out the name, but Sam was the first on at his side and gently turning him over.

Everyone at the table had jumped to their feet, completely disoriented with the blasts. Dean felt as Cas tensed up next to him and wildly turned to the other doorway that Cas was watching with a terrified expression. Without waiting to see it, Dean ran up to the exit and forced the big metal sliding door shut with a resounding bang just as another fireball rounded that corner and raced towards the now shut door. Even with the metal between him and the blast, Dean still felt the impact and it would have knocked him over if not for Cas catching and holding him from behind.

Casting Castiel a grateful look, Dean turned to take stock of his crew. Balthazar and Sam were knelt by Gabriel's side, trying to rouse him will calls. Bobby, Meg and Chuck were shutting all vents and doors that led to the engine room and shutting off any unnecessary power around the room to avoid any further surges. It was only when Dean felt moderately sheltered in the dining area that he let himself look to Gabriel to assess his condition.

The moment his eyes had caught the damage done, Dean wished that he could erase the image from his mind forever. It was bad. Even from where Dean was standing he could see that even though there were no burns, the concussion and hits to the table and wall had caused horrific injuries. Half of the pilot's chest looked caved in where the ribs had obviously been smashed to dust and crumbs. His temple that had hit the wall was bleeding freely. No stranger to injuries, Dean knew that head wounds had a tendency to bleed heavily…but whenever you could see bone, you were bound to have a nasty concussion paired with it. And there was no doubt that there was visible bone right now. However, the head injury was nothing but a headache compared to a crushed chest.

Sam was barely paying attention to the gruesome mess and was instead trying to wake Gabriel up with gentle calls, "Gabe? C'mon Gabe, talk to me. You've gotta talk to me…" Dean could hear from his brother's voice that he was barely keeping it together and it hit him like a physical blow. The pure anguish in his baby brother's voice was enough to make his own heart ache in sympathy.

Dean turned to where Meg and Bobby were looking down at the carnage, "You two. I want you to seal off everything that leads below decks. Bobby, call it in when it's done. Get to it, now!" They scrambled off to comply and then he turned to Chuck, "You go to the bridge and lower the ramp. When Bobby gives the word, you open the airlock, dongma?" Chuck nodded and ran off to the control room.

The Captain glanced to where the Cas had joined the others by the downed pilot, watching as the other man placed a hand to his brother's bleeding forehead, assessing his condition. Dean knelt down next to him.

* * *

Chuck frantically worked on the ship's controls from the bridge. It was so much easier to lower the ramp when he was actually in the hold, but he didn't have that choice right now. Not if he wanted to be there when the airlock opened and get sucked out into the black. Ramp finally lowered, Chuck held his breath and waited for the call from the preacher.

He only had to hold his breath for 38 seconds before he heard the comm. box cackle and Bobby's gruff voice shout, "Done!" and then Chuck slammed his hand on the button that would open the airlock.

Through the corridors, the fires that had been rolling through the lower decks started to be pulled towards the hold and a vacuum of space. The fire roarded through the hold, scorching the walls and then being spat out into space knocking some of the cargo loose and taking it out as well.

Chuck watched through the window as finally the last tongue of flame licks out of the airlock, extinguishing itself in the vacuum, and the now oxygen starved parts of the ship were fire free and now as cold as space. He triggers shut the airlock and raises the ramp. For a moment he played with the idea that he would stay in the haven of this room instead of going back to ground zero, but he squashed that thought quickly.

The crew needed him to fix the ship. He was the main mechanic on the Impala, and it was his job to keep them afloat. He called over the comm. box to let everyone know that he was going to the engine room and then raced down the blackened corridors, frantically going over the many possible reasons for that fire.

* * *

It was taking too long. Dean's heart started sinking with every passing second that Cas examined Gabriel. His mind kept on flashing back to Becky, and how Cas had been unable to bring her back. She was almost a complete stranger to Cas, and he was a mess after that. What would happen if he lost a brother? And Dean didn't even want to contemplate what this would do to Sam. The poor kid had gone through enough loss in his life with their mom, dad, and Jess. It would kill Sam, and that would kill Dean. Growing up, Dean had wanted nothing more than to give Sam a happy childhood. He hadn't been successful, so he promised himself that he would give Sam a happy home, and now that could all be taken away. Didn't Sammy deserve some happiness? Dean continued to shift his eyes between Sam's and Cas' expressions, waiting for something to change.

Finally Cas looked up at them, but his expression made Dean feel like he was going to be sick. His eyes were impossibly wide and his shoulders started to shake.

Impatiently Sam grabbed at Cas' arm and shook him, "Hey, is he going to be okay? Are you going to fix him?" he demanded.

Dean watched as Cas' lower lip trembled and shook his head, "I…I don't think I'm strong enough," he choked out. Dean could feel Cas' and Sam's anguish at that moment, and it was enough to suffocate him.

Sam wasn't about to accept that answer as he held Gabriel in his arms, "Try, damn it! He's not dead yet, you can fix him!" Then Balthazar looked up for the first time since he had knelt down next to their brother, "Cassy…please. Please fix him," he whispered pleadingly.

With a short nod Castiel leaned forward placing his hands butterfly lightly on his brother's crunched chest and closed his eyes. Within a few seconds they started to see the exertion that Castiel was going through with this. Sweat had already started beading on his forehead, his breath was becoming shorter, color was quickly draining from his face, but he held his hands firm upon Gabriel.

Mentally Dean was going over everything that Castiel was having to fix up in his brother. It wasn't like a gun shot that tore up blood vessels and organs. This was a whole other animal. Not only were there bones to mend, but there was probably incredible amounts of internal bleeding as well, not to mention the collapsed and punctured lung. Dean didn't even want to think about the amount of damage that had happened to the pilots head.

Sam's and Balthazar's eyes were never wavering from Gabriel's face as Cas worked, too lost in their heartbreaking worry to look up. Thankfully at least Dean was paying attention to their healer to notice when his breathing started to become incredibly shallow. The very first time that Dean had ever met Castiel, the young man had used an incredible amount of energy to save his little brother by healing up a gun shot to his gut. Back then Dean had been too focused on Sammy to take too much notice of the healing process, but Dean was pretty sure that Cas was pushing it there and he didn't look half as bad then as he did right now.

An odd crunching noise filled the room, and after a moment, Dean nauseatingly realized that the sound was coming from Gabriel's chest where the bones were slowly cracking into place and hopefully mending. It took a conscious effort to not spew at the sound, but Dean held it back the best he could, for Sam's sake at least.

Castiel looked just as ashen as Gabriel at this point, and his breathing didn't look much different from the downed pilot's either, and now he had started to sway from his crouched position as if his body was only being held up by a string from the ceiling. More than slightly worried, Dean grabbed Cas' wrist to get his attention.

"Cas…Hey, Cas! Cut it out!" He shouted. His shout drew Balthazar's attention and the middle Novak glance up confused at the Captain's orders.

Sam's head shot up as well, clearly upset at the distraction, "Leave him alone, Dean. He's not done yet!"

Angrily Dean glared back, "Jesus, Sammy. He's done the best he can! Look at him! He looks as bad as Gabriel now!"

Both brothers and Balthazar turned to look at Cas who was now half slumped over, completely limp except for his hands that remained glued to his brother's chest. Dean adjusted his fingers on Castiel's wrist where his hand still lay, feeling around for his pulse. It took far too long to find it because it had become alarmingly weak.

Now frantic, Dean started to pull at Cas' hands to get him to let go of Gabriel, "Holy shit! Cas, let go, now! You're killing yourself! Let go!"

Wide eyed Balthazar jumped in to help Dean pull at Cas, but it was like he was suddenly made of stone and it was impossible for them to detach the two. On the verge on panic, Dean turned to Sam who had yet to let go from where he held Gabriel in his lap.

"Sammy…Sammy, please. You have to let go of Gabe and help us with Cas. Please. They'll both die if you don't."

The plea in his brother's voice must have shocked Sam into action because he finally released Gabriel and joined the other two in tearing at Cas' hands. At this point Dean could plainly see that Castiel had almost completely stopped breathing. The Captain didn't even want to stop to check his pulse again, fearing that it might have already stopped.

With the three of them pulling they were finally able to pry the claw-like grasp off of Gabriel. They all lay in a pile with a limp Castiel on top of them, not stirring in the slightest. Each of them scrambled out from under him. Sam going to check on Gabriel, Dean checking on Castiel, and poor Balthazar caught unsure who to go to first, torn in between going to his baby brother or his older brother.

Sam was able to report first, "He's still alive, but I don't think everything was fixed. His head is still a mess…"he trailed off. He didn't say out loud that there was a pretty good chance that not all the internal bleeding was stopped.

Off to the side Dean placed trembling fingers to Cas' neck, feeling for a pulse while lowering his ear to his mouth to listen for a breath. The beat was so weak that if it weren't for the soft tickle he felt on his ear, Dean would have believed that his mind was playing tricks on him and Cas was already dead.

But for now, all the Novaks were alive. They had to just keep it that way.

"Let's get these two to the infirmary, now! And somebody call Bobby!"

* * *

_**PRESENT**_

In the empty Impala, Dean numbly stumbles down the steps toward the infirmary, an engine part clutched in one hand. Blood continues to drip from his side, his other weak hand held against it to staunch as much of the flow as possible.

At the foot of the steps he sets his blurry eyes on the doorway into the infirmary and walks towards it.

* * *

Whump! Sorry about the minor gory stuff, but I'm sure you've all seen worse. Again, this story is going to be cliffy after cliffy, so many many apologies! But I'll have the next chapter up tomorrow! :D


	4. Chapter 4

Notes: Okay, I've had my three day vacation from writing. Tomorrow I start writing the next episode which is the remake of Ariel. I have a couple of ideas or this one, but hopefully I come up with some more plot twists cause I think I'm a little low on those for this next one.

ship. me: Then you shall have more! Here is a nice juicy chapter for ya! Hearts!

west189: Oh noes! *Virtual hug!* Hang in there!

leahelisabeth: Ooo, ya someone caught it! I love it when you guys get my referenses! XD And as to your guess...*evil plotting laughter*. I know that you will love it XD

Disclaimer: *scoff* As if.

* * *

CHAPTER 4

_**Night Before**_

The Infirmary doors whooshed open as Sam and Balthazar rushed Gabriel in on a stretcher, mindful of the fact that internal bleeding and sharp broken bones might still be a problem. Dean followed in behind them, cradling a still incredibly limp Cas, all the while bellowing for Bobby to get his preaching ass down there.

The pilot was quickly transferred over to the examination table where Sam started to hook up the pulse/O2 monitor and blood pressure cuff. Dean plopped Cas on the bed off to the side, making sure to put another pulse monitor onto his finger as well as several blankets. The short walk over Dean had noticed that Cas' body was becoming colder and colder with each passing minute. He hadn't shown any sign of improving. At least Gabriel chest no longer looked like a deflated basket ball.

Everyone conscious in the room breathed a sigh of relief as Bobby dashed into the room. None of them had forgotten how Bobby had been able to give Sam more time when he was injured all those months ago. His training as a medic was truly a gift to the crew right now with both of their healers down and out. Bobby thankfully didn't ask any questions and just set right to work, checking the blood pressure readings, taking note of all vitals of each brother. He had a frown on his face the whole time, but Dean was pretty sure that he always wore that expression. AT least he prayed.

Dean mostly glanced from Bobby, to Cas, to Gabriel, and then rested on Sam. His brother's hands were shaking...

The rest of the crew, with the exception of Chuck had gathered outside of the infirmary, watching as Bobby worked over the injured members. They watched as he pulled out different monitors that none of them knew what they were for. They watched as he put wires up on both brothers' temples. They watched as one machine scratched out waves on a sheet of paper that Bobby looked over thoroughly. No one spoke, afraid to break whatever peace had fallen over the ship for the moment.

Eventually Bobby's initial examination slowed as he started to conclude whatever he had found and he turned partially to address the others, "Well, with Gabriel there is no sign of burning, but y'all already knew that. All of his injuries were internal, so I'm going to do an x-ray and then an ultra sound to check to see if Cas was able to fix the breaks. The ultra sound should be able to show me if there is still internal bleeding, but I'm going to say this now, his blood pressure is low, and it's still getting lower. That means that there is probably still a bleeder somewhere. We just have to pray that it isn't in his head. I'll be scanning for that next. He won't be waking up anytime soon, though. Too much sock and damage at the moment."

Everyone took a minute to absorb that. From his spot between the two beds, Balthazar let out a choked sob and lowered himself to the floor as his knees started to give out. Sam didn't move at all. Dean wasn't sure that if he looked close enough that Sam would even be breathing. Finally Dean spoke up, his voice cracking, "What about Cas?"

The preacher sighed heavily and cast a glance over to the youngest Novak, "Him I'm not too sure about. His vitals are…hell, I ain't gonna sugarcoat it for you, they're bad and getting worse. Now, I don't know a damn thing about mojo depletion, so I can't tell you what is really wrong or how to fix it. However, from a medical stand point he's barely holding on." From the floor they all heard Balthazar suck in a halting breath and start praying in mandarin.

It was like a punch to his stomach, and from Sam's expression he was probably feeling something similar. Sucking in a deep breath Dean stood up straight and nodded his understanding at Bobby before he walked out of the room and started pacing just outside of the infirmary doors. It felt like he couldn't breathe in there anymore.

Anna had tried to move up to Dean and offer words of support, but she was brushed off quickly. Not offended in the slightest, she instead moved into the room to sit on the floor by Balthazar, quietly whispering in his ear sweet comforts that might help.

Bobby was in the middle of the x-rays when Chuck appeared from around the corner looking pale and clammy. Dean zoned in on him right away and walked right up to the mechanic for a report, but as soon as Chuck had peered into the infirmary his whole body seemed to freeze up. His mind wandered to a few weeks ago when another of his friends lay that still…

"Chuck. Chuck, look at me." Dean demanded finally bringing Chuck back from the memory, "Did you find out what's wrong?"

Slowly Chuck nodded and then shook his head, "I found out what was damaged because of the fire, but I'm still working on how it happened and if we can fix it."

Dean shook his head, "Listen, I need you up in the engine room figuring that part out then. I could really use a ship that won't explode on us."

The Captain watched as Chuck began to tremble in front of him, "Dean…the ship's not moving. We're dead in the water."

With a sigh, Dean nodded. He had felt it for a while now. It was kind of like that hum that Cas was always talking about had disappeared. His ship had never sounded so empty before, "I know that, Chuck. That's why we need to suss out what happened so that we can get her going again, right? Can you do that?"

Sadly Chuck nodded after glancing over to the infirmary where Bobby had started prepping the ultra sound. Then he briskly walked back down the corridor to the engine room, reminding himself that the crew was relying on him.

From outside Dean watched as Sam moved back to Gabriel's side, clasping his cold hand in his larger one and squeezing gently, "C'mon, Gabe. Everything is going to be fine. I'm sure Cas fixed you up enough. You're going to be fine."

Meg's voice partially scared his already frayed nerves with it's sudden appearance, "Are they going to be okay?" She asked quietly. If Dean wasn't so utterly and emotionally spent, he might have found the strength to be surprised by her concerned sounding question, but as it was all he could do was shrug helplessly. What he was about to do was not going to go over well. If anyone had tried to do this to him, he probably would punch their lights out, but there was no choice in the matter. He prayed that Sam would see reason.

Squaring his shoulders, Dean walked back in to the infirmary, pointedly not looking at either of the still bodies on the beds, "Sam. Sam, I need you in the control room." He stated firmly, not wanting to leave any room in his voice that would allow argument.

Sam didn't even turn to look at Dean, "Gabe's hurt."

The big brother in Dean wanted nothing more than to let Sam stay by his lovers side. He wanted to stand by Sam and tell him everything was all right. Tell him that his big brother would fix everything…but he couldn't. They were all in a crisis, not just Sam.

"Yes, he is. But he's also alive and Bobby here is going to do everything he can to make sure he stays that way. In the meantime, I have to have you in the control room. We need to know how bad it is."

Sam's jaw clenched tight, "How bad? It's bad, okay, Dean? Gabe might be dying. So my feeling is that it's pretty damn bad. I'm not leaving his side. Don't ask me again." he tossed back with a snarl.

Flatly, Dean responded, "I wasn't asking, Sam. I was telling." Here it comes…

"Chur ni-duh," muttered Sam darkly, turning all his attention back to the pilot on the table. (Screw You)

Mentally apologizing to Gabriel and Sam for this, Dean surged forward mindful of the machines and grabbed at Sam's shirt collar to swing him around and shove him up against one of the counters, "You're going to get up to that control room and get us on our feet. Now. Gabriel will die for sure if we all just sit here feeling sorry for ourselves," he hissed and then released Sam quickly while stepping back.

Everyone stood still, waiting to see how Sam would react, but the fuming younger Winchester snarled again at Dean before heading off in the direction of the control room, clearly still upset. Dean watches him go and adds another point to his self loathing chart.

* * *

_**Five Years Ago**_

_Sam and Dean stood in the doorway of the control room as the potential new pilot examined the cockpit innards, flat on his back under one of the panels. Every few moments they hear appreciative grunts and exclamations from where the pilot is digging through the Impala's circuitry. Finally he popped out from under the panel, revealing a disgustingly bright Hawaiian shirt, slicked back hair, and a very thick and distracting mustache on his person._

_The pilot nodded happily, "Yeah. This is all very do-able," he said clasping his hands together and taking another scan around the room and smiling again, "Shouldn't be a problem at all. A few modifications, you could get some real maneuverability out of this boat. You'd be surprised," the pilot, Trickster as Dean had learned his name earlier, said with excitement evident in his voice._

"_So you'll take the job, then?" Dean asked eagerly._

_Trickster sauntered over to the pilot's chair and sat down, giving it a little swivel, "Might do, might do. I think I'm starting to get a feel here." His gaze was drawn out the window, smiling at the sun and blue sky he saw there._

_Dean smiled and clapped his hands together, "Awesome! Well, take your time. Make yourself at home. Fiddle with the shiny dials and buttons, then. We'll be nearby." Trickster nodded and swiveled the chair away from them to do as he was told and started to fiddle with the dial while Dean and Sam moved away from the room and down the hallway a bit._

"_He's great, isn't he?" Dean gushed, his dream of getting his new ship floating slowly coming to fruition. Sam looked less than pleased._

"_I don't like him," he stated firmly, arms crossed over his chest as if skived at the very thought of the pilot. _

_Dean was taken aback at the forward comment, "What? But he's awesome!"_

_Sam shrugged, "I don't know, just something about him bothers me."_

_Dean rolled his eyes, "Dude, you say the same thing about Tuesdays. What the hell is bothering you about him? Maybe it's the mustache? Those lip warmers always give people the creeps."_

"_I don't know…just something."_

_Dean stared at Sam for a beat, clearly annoyed that Sam was acting like a girl and getting nervous over a guy with a face caterpillar, "Well, your "something" comes up against a list of recommendations as long as my leg. Tanaka raved about this guy. Renshaw's been trying to get him on his crew for a month! And we need a pilot, Sam."_

"_I get that, Dean. He just bothers me."_

"_Look, we finally got ourselves a genius mechanic. It's about time we hired someone to fly the damn thing," growled Dean just as said genius mechanic strolled into sight, his mullet fanning out behind him as he walked._

"_Genius…I like that. I'm going to remember that one. Shiny," smirked Ash as he continued down the corridor chugging back a beer as he went._

_Sam completely ignores Ash, still thinking on Trickster, "Just bothers me," he mumbled to himself. Dean had already moved back to the control room to check on their new pilot._

* * *

Yes. Gabriel has a mustache. I've seen photos on tumblr of Richard Speight with a very impressive mustache and, GAH!, it was just too perfect.


	5. Chapter 5

Notes: Oh my babies...There will be hug therapies available in my PM box after this chapter to any and all who need it.

Ship. me: I'm just going to apologize now...I am so sorry.

Katie: Hiya! Dude, doing a fanfic with Cas would be just...awesome. I can't even describe XD

Leahelisabeth: Have even MOAR feels! All the feels! BWAH! :D

Disclaimer: Daily Reminder #91: I don't own this. For those of you keeping track, yes, it has been 91 days since I first posted the Impala Series. On day 100 I should totally do something special...

* * *

CHAPTER 5

_**A Few Hours Earlier**_

The infirmary was filled with different beeping, and blipping of machines measuring some vital or another. Bobby was looking over the latest results on one machine as Dean registered back with the rest of the world. Whatever was showing on the latest batch of reports had deepened the crease on the preacher's forehead.

"How's it looking, Bobby?" Dean asked quietly, but Balthazar, who Anna had just gotten to calm down a bit, snapped his head up eager to hear the next set of news.

Bobby sighed heavily, "Well, Cas was real smart in how he went about dealing out the mojo. Seems like he got the bones back in place, but didn't waste any more energy on healing them. Then it looked like he got the swelling down in his brain. The neuroscan shows a partially healed bleeder that shouldn't cause much more trouble, but I'm keeping an eye on it. It's the internal bleeding in his belly that's got me worried. It's a slow bleed from what the ultra sound is telling me, but it is constant. I'm no surgeon, but I'm thinking it's going to have to be fixed iffin he's going to pull through. At least I was able to clean and stitch up the cut on his head. Cas didn't seem to worried about the scratch and left it."

During the first report Balthazar had stood up and held on to his brother's hand, squeezing his hand and then looking up at Bobby for news on Cassy.

"As for Castiel, well, he's not faring to good either, I'm afraid. His body temp is still really low and the blankets don't seem to be helping much. His pulse is almost non-existent, his breathing is still shallow…I don't know what to tell you." He shrugged helplessly and rubbed a hand over his sweaty face.

Balthazar gave Gabriel's hand one more squeeze before moving over to Cassy and latching on to one of his little brother's ice cold hands and tried to work some heat back into them by rubbing gently. He didn't say anything, just nodded his understanding at Bobby and turned his attention back to his brothers.

The whole situation seemed to explode in Dean's chest right then. The worry over Cas and Gabriel. His concern for Sammy if Gabe didn't pull through. The horror of the thought if Cas didn't pull through. The terror knowing that his ship was nothing more than floating debris in the black. It was too much. Dean tried to suck in a steadying breath, but it came out more like a gasp for air as the situation started to choke him. But then he was grounded as Bobby moved up behind him and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"Breathe, boy. Ain't nothing you can do right now 'cept keep the crew together."

Shakily Dean tried to breathe again, this time succeeding more so than his last attempt. He shyly sent the Sheppard a grateful look. Bobby was right. He had to keep it together even though he would have liked nothing more than to crawl up in a ball and hide. Dean didn't have that option or the luxury.

Then there was Balthazar. Dean was amazed at his ability so far to hold it together this well. When Sammy went down, Dean almost went catatonic. And now here was Balthazar with both his brothers fighting for their lives, and he was holding up like a seasoned soldier. No, he wasn't calm. Yes, he had tear trails on his cheeks, but anyone else would be a blubbering mess at this point. Everyone on the crew knew how much Balthazar loved his two brothers. Dean could only imagine the turmoil that must be broiling in his mind right now as he stood over the baby brother that he and Gabriel had raised together.

Dean joined the middle Novak, standing at Cas' bedside. God, how he hated seeing Cas like this. He couldn't imagine how much worse it was for the man next to him. Unable to bring himself to look at Balthazar's face right now, scared to see what his expression was like as he watched his little brother slip away, Dean trailed his gaze over Cas. He started by noting how his hair hung as limp as the rest of him, weighted down by the sweat from the earlier healing. He noted how the lines on his face had smoothed down completely in his unconscious state. He smirked fondly as his eyes fell on the constantly chapped lips. Finally he dragged his gaze to Cas' closed eyelids, hating seeing them closed again when they should be opened wide with his dreamy wonder of the world. The Captain was so intent on Castiel's face and closed eyes that he almost missed it when Balthazar gasped in surprise.

"He squeezed my hand! I felt it! Cassy? Cassy wake-up, darling!" He cheered, never letting go of the hand clasped in his. Dean felt a glimmer of hope spark in his heart and he leaned in close waiting for Cas to react again. The other present crew moved closer as well.

They were all rewarded for their vigilance when a small sliver of blue peaked out behind his eyelids as he slowly gained consciousness. Dean was so excited, but when Cas' eyes were at half mast, Dean noticed that he wasn't groggy like he usually was when he woke up from an intense healing, this time it looked way worse than that. The usual electric spark that was always in the corner of his eyes was gone, leaving dull and pale blue eyes instead. Cas didn't even look like he had the strength to yawn. Cas' eyes roamed painfully slow over each of the faces hovering over him and it didn't look like it was registering completely in his head.

"You're all scared. Don't be afraid," he whispered so quietly everyone leaned in further to hear.

"Bobby's bible say that we never have to be afraid," he smiled, but it was little more than a twitch of a lip.

"Shh, Cassy. We're not afraid. You're going to be just fine," whispered back Balthazar, keeping his voice as if a noise too loud would blow Castiel away.

The smallest incline of his head, a nod from Cas. Finally Cas' eyes dragged themselves over to Dean, "Dean? Dean, my body has fallen in the snow. Ice in my blood. Make the ship's sun glow again so I can thaw?"

Dean grabbed Cas' other cold hand, blowing hot breath on it and rubbing it like Balthazar to tease heat into them, "I'm working on it Cas. The ship's broken right now, but we're working on it." This was so wrong. Cas was never cold. He burned like a furnace at all times as if generating extra energy around him. The temperature of his hands right now were foreboding to Dean.

A single tear worked its way out of one of Cas' dull eyes, "I'm so sorry, Dean. I should have taken better care of her. I thought she would have told me if something was wrong. Maybe she did and I wasn't paying attention," he gasped out, his eyes falling closed and his hand in Dean's becoming limp again.

Dean frantically shook his head, "No, no, no. Cas, this isn't your fault. Do you hear me? It isn't your fault!" he almost shouted, but Castiel didn't hear him.

That's when the heart monitor attached to Cas went off.

"His heart's stopped," said Bobby and he sprinted into action far faster than any man his age should be able to.

Anna grabbed Balthazar's arm and led him out of the infirmary. It was surprisingly easy considering the size difference, but Balthazar seemed to have completely checked out and already had silent tears streaming down his face as he started muttering a mantra, "No, no, no. Not Cassy. No, no, no."

Meg took off, knowing that she wouldn't be needed and that she didn't want to be here when everything went to shit. She didn't look back even once. She instead decided to go to the engine room where she maybe could find something to kick for Chuck. That's how you fix broken things, right?

Dean whispered his own weak, "No," before he moved up next to Bobby as he raced around the infirmary grabbing different medical objects, "What do you need, Bobby?"

Bobby pulled a vial off of one of the shelves and then pointed to the drawn to Dean's left, "That drawer, right there."

Dean ripped it open and sees that it only contains several packets, each containing one large hypodermic needle. He glanced at Bobby who nodded, then picked one of them out and handed it to the preacher who dosed it up with the contents of the vial he had retrieved.

Meanwhile the heart monitor was still screaming at them. It's piercing wail momentarily reminding Dean of Cas' own spectacular cry, but upon reflection, the machine's wail this time around was far more painful to bear.

Anna saw the giant needle be handed to the preacher and she held tightly to the middle Novak as she trembled in her hold. His mantra had been broken up by empty sobs of despair as he watched them work over his baby brother, while his older brother lay not four feet away. She felt her heart breaking at the sight of it all

"What is this stuff?" Asked Dean as Bobby continued to load up the giant needle, in his panic not understanding how something that big and sharp could do any good.

Bobby was completely focused on his task, not leaving any room for emotion to distract him at this junction. He absently heard Dean's question and only spared a moment to answer when he had finished loading up the needle, "Pure adrenaline." Then Bobby readied himself, poised over Castiel's body, and he positioned the needle right over Cas' heart.

Anticipating what was about to happen, Anna cringed and turned away trying to pull Balthazar as well to spare him the sight, but he had become a transfixed statue and didn't move his eyes an inch away from what was happening in the infirmary. Dean also wanted to look away, but he had promised Cas that he wouldn't leave him alone. Somehow, looking away while his friend was…in pain…it seemed like another type of abandonment.

With a sickening crunch, Bobby plunged the needle into his chest and pushed down the plunger to release the drugs. In the back of his mind Dean worried that Cas' resistance to drugs wouldn't be a problem here as he waited for the medicine to have an effect on him.

He didn't have to wait long because not two seconds later Cas' whole body arched on the table, jolting up and tensing.

* * *

_**PRESENT**_

Alone in the infirmary Dean howls in pain as he sits on the edge of the empty examination table, wrapping a bandage around his midsection. The bandage was already starting to show signs of blood staining it. He breathes hard, then tries to rise only just managing to not pass out as the pain jolts through him.

Mechanically he straightens himself, and finds his balance again. Slowly he begins to shuffle to the counter and opens the drawer that Bobby had pointed out earlier and pulls out another needle. Then he gropes around the cabinet and pulls out the half empty vial of adrenaline he had seen used earlier when they were trying to save Cas. He fills the needle up just like he saw before.

Here comes the hardest part, Dean thinks to himself. And he positions the needle over his own heart and slowly stabs it into himself.

His whole body jolts him violently, sending him to the floor.

* * *

Gah! Why!? WHY DID I WRITE THIS!?


	6. Chapter 6

Notes: Some plot and some fluff for you today. I did my best to make sure I didn't rip out your still beating hearts two days in a row (some are still in recover I've heard), so please enjoy!

ship. me: I'm so sorry I made you cry D'X

Leahelisabeth: I'm so sorry I made you cry D'X

To Everyone Else: I'm so sorry I made you cry D'X But The Feels Were Worth It!

Disclaimer:

* * *

CHAPTER 6

_**A Few Hours Earlier**_

"Captain?"

Chucks hesitant voice broke Dean out from his thoughts. It had been a half hour since Cas' heart stopped, almost making Dean's stop beating right along with it. After the adrenaline shot and the spasms it had caused had worked their way through Cas' body, his heart started to beat again. Now it and Gabriel had held steady for a half hour with no changes or surprises. The vice around Dean's chest loosened a notch.

"Yeah. What's up, Chuck?" He asked wearily as he scraped his nails over the stubble that had formed on his face. He had shave this morning…well, glancing at his watch now he noted that they were a few hours into the next day already. The explosion had been almost four hours ago.

Chuck had been distracted once again as he glanced into the infirmary to see the two unconscious Novaks on the beds, Balthazar still hovering over them keeping vigil with Bobby, "Are they going to be okay?" he finally asked.

Dean cast a glance behind him before turning back, "Let me worry about them for now. Come on. Tell me what you know," he prodded.

Seemingly satisfied with the answer Chuck started in with mechanic speak, "Well the catalyzer on the port compression coil blew. That's where the trouble started."

"And?"

Chuck's shoulders slumped, "We're dead in the water."

Impatiently Dean rolled his eyes, "I knew that, Chuck. Can you fix it is what I need to know."

The mechanic started to fiddle with the front of his shirt, "I could try," he mumbled.

Dean raised a hand, "Just…get us limping. That's all I need."

Chuck just looked at him, nearly staring like Cas did sometimes. It started to make Dean uncomfortable, "What? What is it?" he asked partially freaking out at the odd behavior.

The expression on Chuck's face looked like he was about to be sick, "Well, it's worse than just the coil. I only told you where the problem started. We haven't even gotten to the really bad stuff."

Dean's chest clenched tight again, " Seriously, how could it be worse?"

"Main life-support's down on account of the engine being dead."

"Okay…But we have auxiliary life support…"Dean tried but Chuck shook his head sadly. He hated giving Dean bad news about his beloved ship. He knew it was like a physical pain for the Captain to hear that the Impala was broken in any way.

"I'm sorry, Dean. But we don't. I can't even get it to turn on. The explosion must have knocked it out," he reported, wincing at his own words and again at Dean's shocked expression.

"So what the hell are we breathing?" he nearly shouted.

Again Chuck shrugged, "Whatever got pumped into atmo before the explosion shut it all down." Behind the two men, Meg slowly slinked into the room listening in. She had been in the engine room when Chuck had discovered all of this. She had heard it all before and hearing it again just pissed her off more.

"And lucky for us, most of that oxygen got eaten up by the fire on its way out of the door. So whatever is left is all we've got." she sneered bitterly, seating herself on the nearby stairs.

Dean started rubbing his temples as he tried to process all of this bad news. How much could a Captain take in a four hour period? When would his head and heart finally explode from it all? After a few moments he glanced up at Chuck again, "How long," he demanded.

Knowing exactly what the Captain was asking Chuck flinched again, "A couple of hours, maybe. We'll start to feel in the next two hours or so….and then, we'll feel nothing," he said sadly, gaze falling to the floor.

All three of them shivered, unsure if it was because of the cold from space began to leak into the ship or if it was due to the fact that they could possibly be a few short hours away from death.

* * *

Anna wandered up to Bobby's side, giving up on trying to comfort Balthazar after her many failed attempts in the last half hour. The amount of time she had spent wringing her hands in the last few hours had started to make them ache horribly and she had to force herself to stop the motion.

Tentatively she spoke to the tired Sheppard, "So, how are they?"

He sighed heavily before answering, "Gabriel still hasn't regained consciousness, but he's been holding steady. No improvement, but I'm taking the lack of death as a good sign. As for Cas…his heart is still beating. That's enough for me right now. As it stands right now, if they both remain like this, they'll both outlive us all." At Anna's questioning look, "They are using less oxygen," he explained finally.

Bobby leaned against the counter facing his two patients and Anna joined him. Balthazar remained between his brothers, not seeming to recognize the presence of any others in the room. The preacher could feel the pain in Anna's voice as she spoke again, "I love this ship. I have from the very moment I saw it and the thought of…." She broke off with a hitched breath.

Bobby huffed, "Same. Something about that crotchety old outer shell just called me to it."

"Castiel once told me that the ship speaks to him. That she hums us all to sleep every night and shutters when one of us is hurting, and glows when we are together and happy," Anna said wistfully, as if she wished that she could also hear the ship's voice whisper to her and rock her to sleep each night. Bobby had to admit it sounded rather pleasant, even if the idea of a living ship was a bit creepy. But he was a preacher, and he was used to the idea of his every motion being watched by some other being.

"He told me that too…and I believed him. He made this place sound like a safe haven for us…some safe haven," said Balthazar bitterly as he brushed some of Castiel's hair back from his forehead. His breaking his own silence startled both the Companion and the preacher. Both weren't sure how to respond, but they didn't have to as Balthazar spoke again.

"I just…" his throat caught and he had to push his vocals harder to speak, making his voice crack, "it was my birthday…"

There was nothing to say, nothing to make it better, so they all stayed silent and continued to hold vigil over their fallen friends.

* * *

There was no quelling Sam's dismay at this point, nor his frustration. He was almost grateful to Dean to pissing him off because it served to distract him a little from thinking about how distraught he was over Gabriel. Deep down of course Sam knew he was needed up in the control room, but that responsibility at this point felt inferior to his driving need to be by Gabe's side.

When had Sam's loyalty to Gabriel become so powerful that it had become an actual mental battle to choose between helping his brother and helping someone else? The very idea boggled the young man's mind. He didn't even know who Gabriel really was until a few months ago. When had the pilot become so close to him?

* * *

_**Five Years Ago**_

_The Impala had finally been cleaned up and was actually drifting through space efficiently. Their mechanic and pilot had okayed her for flight a few days ago and Dean only paused long enough to stock up on food and some other items before they had all taken to the sky. Sam had to admit that the ship's flight was smooth and it make Sam feel free for the first time in a long time. There were no Garrison eyes on them. There was no way that an enemy could sneak up on them. Oddly enough, Sam was beginning to get a feel for the place. Almost as if it could be a home._

_Sam had been avoiding the control room continuously since they had hired the new pilot. He just wasn't sure what to make of the guy and it bugged Sam that he couldn't get a read on the guy. However, Dean had been gushing about the view from the control room window and had been pestering Sam to check it out. So, when Sam saw Trickster heading off to the kitchen one night, Sam took the opportunity to sneak up and take a look._

_Dean had been right. The view was stunning. Sam had memories of stars from where he and Dean lay side by side in the trenches looking up at the little lights in the sky and dreaming they were somewhere else. He had memories of when they were both children and they would try to make dot pictures in the sky once Sam had finally given up on trying to count them. Now, many years later, Sam could see them in all of their glory._

_Sam stood there, completely transfixed with the view, and eventually he lost track of how much time he had been standing there. It was then that he practically jumped out of his skin when he heard a soft noise behind him. Almost falling by turning so fast, Sam reached out to the nearest thing to keep himself from kissing the floor. As it turns out that thing was Trickster who had a candy bar in each hand that he dropped in reaching out to steady the younger Winchester. _

"_Whoa, easy there tiger. It's just me. Not evil Garrison soldier on this boat," he chuckled and removed his hands from Sam's forearms._

_Blushing haughtily, Sam nodded his understanding and thanks and tried to make a quick exit but the pilot called after him, somehow making him pause, "Hold up a sec. If you think that view was nice, then let me turn the ship a bit. There's a set of stars to our left that really twinkle like a first graders art project when they discover glitter. Take a seat. It'll take like two seconds."_

_Cautiously Sam moved back into the room and chose to lean against the wall as far away as possible, still blushing. He watched as Trickster fiddled with a switch here and a lever there before jostling the joy stick and making the ship turn a bit. Unable to tear his eyes away, Sam watched every movement. _

_Trickster seemed to take note, "You know how to fly this bird?" He asked kindly. The question caught Sam by surprise. Truth was that he had always wanted to learn how to fly. Their dad had been able to teach Dean for a while before the war really took off. Sam had been too young to learn with his brother, and he had always felt a bit of a loss at that. Dean had those happy memories while Sam didn't._

_Sam shook his head as answer. Trickster didn't seem the least bit put out by it and motioned Sam over to the pilot's chair. For whatever reason Sam didn't try to make an excuse to leave or reject the offer. Instead he went and sat down in the seat and let Trickster place his hand on the joy stick as he narrated what he wanted Sam to do._

"_Alright, I know you're a smart kid, so you probably already know how a joystick works. But the fun thing with space is, there is no up or down. It's all relative. However, when you're flying a spaceship that can become a little disorienting, so you have to keep your wits about you and keep an eye on the nav screen so you don't accidentally flip us in the wrong direction." It was the first time the Sam had heard the pilot talk seriously about anything. It was a nice change as it seemed far more genuine than the forced conversations at dinner._

_Gently Sam began to turn the ship. He was unsure how far to the "left" he was turning, but when he looked out the window he knew exactly what it was that Trickster wanted him to see. Before the sky looked so thick with stars that it almost seemed to lighten up the black of the sky. Stars were winking and gleaming brilliantly…Sam never knew it could look like this. To him, the stars always were just the stars, they looked exactly the same from a distance, but here….it was like discovering a whole new universe in front of him. _

_Sam couldn't help but turn and smile at Trickster. The pilot smiled back and retrieved the two candy bars from the floor and handed one to Sam, "Excellent, you're a natural! And as reward you get one of the candy bars. They might be a little smashed up from the tumble, but it'll taste delicious just the same."_

_They sat there for hours after, Trickster showing him what each and every switch and button meant, and then just watching the stars. It was that night the Sam started to think of the Impala as home._

* * *

Yes, I had to add that last scene in because I had always been curious as to how Wash won over Zoe's heart. Also I've noticed a recurring theme in many stories of sabriel where they are suddenly in love and in a relationship with little or no explanation. I didn't want to do another one of those, so I have this little part to add some more depth. Next chapter up tomorrow! Review if you like :)


	7. Chapter 7

Notes: Yay! Sam is back after a...two chapter absence? Meh, he's back anyway, the poor dear. Still worried about Gabriel D'X Also, we see how Chuck came into his role on the ship! :D

Leahelisabeth: OMG! You're right! Moya was the shit! Damn, now i have to go back and watch that series again XD Who knows, maybe after the Impala series is done I'll work on an AU of Farscape! LOL!

ship. me: I feel like I was vibing the actual show of Supernatural. Like how they can kill Dean hundreds of times in one episode and still make it somewhat funny. XD Yeah, I'm a sick person ;D

katie: Oh noes! Feel better soon! Rest! And make your mom buy you yumminess! I'll be waiting for your return D'X *sobs*

Disclaimer: Tra la la la la, I own nothing here! Tra la la la la! *tossing flowers along the way*

* * *

CHAPTER 7

**_A Few Hours Earlier_**

Sam was startled out of the fond memory as Dean's pounding feet came into the room, and just like that Sam was once again reminded of the reality where Trickster was actually Gabriel, and Gabriel was hurt and their home was exploding around them.

Dean's eyes were hooded with caution, like he was about poke a sleeping bear, but everything else about Dean was forced business. Of course his brother was just trying to keep it together for the rest of the crew, but Sam could see how weary he was. The Impala meant a lot to everyone, but it meant everything to Dean.

"Sam, did you get that beacon sent?" He asked briskly.

Unable to sound anything but gloomy, Sam answered, "Yeah. It's sent."

Dean nodded, but didn't say anything. That's when Sam caught whiff of the despair that was pouring off of his brother. Dean must think this was it, there was nothing that they could do. And here Sam was staring at a nav screen and staring at a joystick that wouldn't even work. His anger built up again to the levels it was at back in the infirmary.

Sam sneered and scoffed, "Pointless," he mumbled.

Dean frowned at him, "What was that?"

Sam threw on a bitchface, "Oh, nothing, Dean. It's a brilliant plan, I'm sure we'll be saved," he said sarcastically. It served it's purpose and got Dean pissed as well.

"Hey! I'm getting a little weary of this attitude, Sam," Dean growled, trying his best not to let his own frustrations out on his already frazzled younger brother.

But Sam wasn't going to make it easy and he swiveled the chair to face Dean, "Are you? Well, I'm _so _very sorry, Dean. I guess the news that we're all going to be purple and bloated and fetal in a few hours has made me a little snippy."

Dean's entire body froze. It was an odd reaction because it wasn't in anger, but perhaps in shock. Sam was about to puzzle out what that reaction meant but it was gone too fast when Dean shook it off and glared at Sam challengingly, "It's possible someone might pick up that signal."

Odd reaction forgotten, Sam ran his hands through his hair, pulling at the ends, "No, Dean. It's not possible. No one's going to pick up the damn signal. You told Gabe to fly us under the radar, away from everything and everyone, remember?"

"Then make it go further!" Dean demanded.

Now Sam was really pissed, "I _can't _make it go further!" Sam shot up from the chair and got in Dean's face. His brother didn't back down and even moved up closer to Sam, not even letting the height difference deter him. He pointed a stern finger in Sam's face.

"You do whatever you have to do. And if you can't do it from here, then get out on the side of the ship and—"

"And what? Wave my arms around?" Sam shouted, voice getting louder with each word.

"Wave your arms around, jump up and down, Divert the nav sats to the transmitter. Whatever. It. Takes." Dean growled.

Sam's face scrunched up in confusion, "Drive the….? Right. Because teenage pranks are _fun _ when you're about to die," he hissed back.

"It would give the beacon a boost, wouldn't it?"

Sam rolled his eyes, "Yes, Dean. It _would_ boost the signal, but even if some passerby did happen to receive, all it'd do is much up their navigation," he said as if talking to a petulant child, "And then the poor sods would be forced to stop and dig out our signal before they…could even go anyplace…" Finally the light dawned in Sam's mind.

Sheepishly he glanced at Dean, "Well…maybe I should do that the."

Steam and anger finally dissipating, Dean deflated and nodded, "Yeah, maybe you should," he said gently.

Then Meg came around the corner, "Hey! What the fuck do you two think you're doing? Fighting at a time like this? I could hear you shouting back in the engine room," she whispered loudly.

Sam and Dean looked bashful and moved back a step to create some cooling space between them. Meg nodded satisfied and turned to leave, tossing back at them, "You damn morons are going to use up all of the air."

Now that Sam couldn't bring himself to be angry at Dean anymore, he quietly fell back into full despair over Gabriel and the ship. Sitting back down in the pilot's chair he went about setting up the signal boost, glancing to where Dean was still standing in the darkened room, a shadow over his face.

Awkwardly Sam cleared his throat, unable to hold back the question that he almost was sure he didn't want to hear, "How is he?" he asked softly, not turning to look at Dean because he was afraid of seeing his despair echoed in his brothers.

"He's hanging in there. Bobby says that he hasn't gotten worse and the bleeding in his head has almost completely stopped…but he hasn't woken up yet." Dena reported just as softly. Sam absorbed the information, relieved to hear that Gabe was still holding on, but then something else registered itself with Sam. This time he did turn to look at Dean, but he couldn't make out his brother's face in the shadows.

"Dean…what about Cas?" Sam had been feeling badly at pushing Cas so hard with Gabriel. Of course Cas would have done everything possible to save him, it was his brother after all, so Sam's demands had not been necessary. And the young man had looked really bad the very few times that Sam had glanced over at him.

Dean's whole body froze again, just like it had a moment ago, and Sam shivered as a chill ran down his spine when Dean's voice cracked as he choked out his reply, "Cas…we almost lost him, Sam. His heart…" Dean couldn't say it and Sam felt his brother's pain in full blast.

Taking a breath and steeling himself, Dean continued, "He's also hanging in there," he stated with finality in his voice. Sam nodded, his eyes trying to peer through the shadow to make out his brother's face, but he just couldn't.

"Cas is strong, Dean. I'm sure he'll pull through," he said gently, but it only seemed to bother Dean as his brother finally moved into the minor light in the room and gestured helplessly at his brother.

"Damn it, Sam. You know I'm emotionally constipated. I haven't given a shit in years…so why is this so hard?"

Sam didn't answer him because Dean knew the answer himself and Sam wasn't about to make it easy for him.

"I'll handle things here Dean. Go check on the others."

As Dean left the room the whole ship dropped again in temperature.

* * *

_**PRESENT**_

When Dean finally came to his senses back in the empty infirmary, he had no idea how much time had passed, but judging by the almost soaked through bandage it was too much time. The adrenaline shot he had given himself was all that powered him to stand up and stumble on determined to complete his task.

He grabbed the piece of machinery from off the floor where it had fallen during his spasms and pushed himself towards the engine room, eyes never wavering from the corridor in front of him, never leaving his goal.

He didn't even flinch when the ship started it's warning alarm over the P.A system, "Life support failure. Check oxygen levels at once." It blared. Fuzzily Dean thought that the voice sounded way too casual about the status. Then the voice blared again in mandarin, "Jeo-shung yong-jur goo-jang. Jien-cha yong-chi gong yin."

The change in language did nothing to make it sound any less terrifying, but Dean chose to ignore it. He knew the oxygen was almost completely gone.

* * *

_**Five Years Ago**_

"_Ash!"_

_Dean stormed through the corridor of his ship, looking for his absent mechanic. He had a feeling that Ash was probably hiding somewhere again. The dude was damn smart and probably already knew that Dean would want to wring his neck._

"_Ash, what's this I hear about another delay?!" Sam had just told Dean a few minutes ago that Ash had requested money for yet another expensive "upgrade" for the ship's engine, but the upgrade would probably take another "34 hours tops", before they could be airborne again._

_Dean liked the dude, he really did, but these upgrades were becoming more and more frequent and Dean wasn't sure that half of them were even necessary. He knew for sure that the special radio that Sam and Ash wanted certainly wasn't necessary or desired. It was an old ship! A classic! He'd be damned before he let them mold it into one of those dainty modern buckets of bolts and plastic._

"_Ash, I'm telling you now, unless that upgrade is essential to flight, it ain't happening. Where the hell are you?!"_

_Finally as he got closer to the engine room he heard noises…noises that Dean was more than familiar with. Dean sighed at the faint sound of erotic moaning echoed through his engine room, trying to quell any and all images of Ash getting his rocks off in his ship. Usually Dean would walk away, never one to mess with another man's special time, but this time around Dean was pissed and didn't much care._

_He stomped into the room loudly, hoping to gain the attention of his mechanic when he spotted two pairs of legs sticking out from behind the turbine. Ash brought a chick in here?! The moaning became louder. Dean cleared his throat finally, "What in the name of suo-yo duh doh shr-dang? Ash, what the hell?!" (all that is proper) Dean shouted loudly, finally startling the couple._

_There were some muffled curses and the sound of shuffling clothes and then a half naked lady ran out of the room scowling, "I thought you said that this was your ship!" she shouted accusingly before running off in a huff._

_A sheepish Ash poked his head around the turbine and nodded at Dean. He had yet to put any sort of clothing on as far as Dean could tell, "What's up, Cap?" He asked merrily, his face full of innocence._

_Dean glared back at him, "You do realize we've been parked on this rock a week longer than we planned, right?"_

_Ash nodded, "Yeah, but I was talking to this guy who has materials for an upgrade…"_

"_I don't care about upgrades! I don't want reclining chairs, I don't want chrome paneling, and I really don't want you having sex with the locals in my engine room! Is there something wrong with your bunk? Besides, we have a job waitin' for us on Paquin. "_

_Ash sighed heavily and got up from his hiding spot behind the turbine, still in his birthday suit, and walked over to the gawking Captain. He grabbed Dean's shoulder in a comforting gesture and leaned in close like he was about to deliver bad news, "Hey, in my defense, she said engines made her hot. But listen Dean. I like you and your brother. You guys are super cool, and I wasn't sure how to tell you guys this but…I have found my calling."_

_Dean stared dumbly for a beat, trying to process the fact that Ash was naked and touching him and also the news that was just shared, "Your calling?"_

"_Yeah! Man, I thought that ships were all that n' everything, but then this guy showed me the light. Dude, I'm telling you, computers are where it's at. Chicks dig a guy who can program. So I made a few calls and found you a new mechanic…"_

_Dean cut him off, "Wait, wait, wait…you're quitting? Because some guy showed you, what, a fancy computer game?"_

_Ash looked offended, "Naw, man. I'm quitting cause I'm bored and I gotta tell ya man. This ship? Slim pickings man. I mean , you don't even have a single chick! And now Sam and Tricky are making googly eyes at each other…its only a matter of time until rumors start about me and you."_

_Dean rubbed at his temples, "First off, eww. And if you're going to take off, then fine. Who is this mechanic you got us?"_

_Their now ex-mechanic's eyes lit up, "Oh, you're gonna love him. His name is Chuck and he lives on the same planet as your next job. Pick him up there. I'll just hog-tie some wires together here so you can be on your way."_

_Too frustrated to deal with anymore of this, Dean just nodded, "Fine. Just…get to work. And this mechanic better be good."_

_Ash smiled and moved to comply before he glanced down at himself, "Well hell then, guess I'll put some pants on!"_

* * *

"_The two brothers approached the run down….approached the ramshackle house with trepidation. Were they really ready to meet this mysterious person? They traded soulful looks. Then with determination Dean pushed the doorbell with forceful…determination…Argh!"_

_Chuck slammed his head on the table as he heard doorbell ring. He whined before getting up to answer it._

_Standing on the other side of the door were two young men, both with guns strapped to their hips. Chuck gulped nervously as the shorter of the two spoke, "You Chuck Shirley?"_

"_M—maybe, why?"_

_The taller one smiled stiffly and put out his hand, "I'm Sam and this is Dean. Ash called you about us?"_

_Chuck's eyes widened, "You mean that wasn't a hallucination?!"_

_As far as first impressions went for a "job interview", Dean was pretty sure that wasn't something you wanted to hear from a potential employee, but then again, what did he know? Chuck got the job in the end._

* * *

D'aww, welcome to the Impala, Chuck. And I do believe that Dean needs a hug.


	8. Chapter 8

Notes: And now we get to see Anna's arrival and get some more plot in there too! Woot woot!

west189: *gross sobbing* IT WAS SO PRETTY IT HURT! D"X

andaere: Hi, hello! I'm so happy that you're enjoying it so far! This one has really been a favorite of mine to write. As for Dean's situation...all will be revealed soon ;)

leahelisabeth: plot bunnies bouncing through my head... but it will take me six months to finish 13 episodes and one movie. Farscape is 88 episodes and one movie...dude, I would have to do some serious cutting if I want to have a life in the next five years XD

Disclaimer:

* * *

CHAPTER 8

"Chuck!"

Dean was jogging lightly into the engine room, hoping and praying that his mechanic had found some brilliant way to save them all and maybe even save his ship, but instead he entered to find Chuck sitting by the giant turbine, a forlorn expression plastered upon his face. Dean had never really noticed how much the glow of the engine served to light up this room, but now, looking at all of the dark shadows making this place look more like some creepy torture or sex dungeon, Dean couldn't help but shiver.

He glanced at Chucks lap where the young man was holding some piece of machinery in loose fingers as he stared at the wall across from him, not even looking up when the Captain entered.

"Chuck, what are you doing?"

Chuck flinched but still didn't look at him, "Dean…Dean, I'm so sorry. I never saw it coming. There were no signs…at least…none that I saw."

Upon closer inspection Dean could see that the thing Chuck was holding was warped and twisted, even melted in some places, "Listen, Chuck. I can't be having you just sitting here playing Captain Hindsight. We've got work to do if we're going to get out of this."

Chuck sniffed loudly, "Dean, the catalyzer's broken. We're going to need a new one."

"There is no new one. You are just going to have to make do with what you've got."

Then Chuck turned his head so that he could look at Dean and catch his eye when he shook his head, "No, Dean. It's broken. It's so messed up that it wont even fit in its slot anymore." The mechanic demonstrated by pushing the melted mess up to one small compartment in the turbine, showing how it wouldn't even slip into place.

The rocks that had moved into Dean's stomach since this all started seemed to double, "Well, then we have to figure out a way to make it fit," he said, but it came out more of a hopeful question.

Then the rocks tripled when Chuck shook his head sadly, "Sometimes things break, and they can't be fixed."

Dean tried his best not to let Chuck's comment about things breaking unnerve him too much, but it was damn hard that every time he walked through his ship and saw a broken part, a broken Gabriel, a broken Balthazar, a broken Sammy, a broken crew, a breaking Castiel…it suffocated him more than lack of oxygen.

* * *

If their mechanic was right, then there was nothing that they could do, so Dean called his crew to meet him in front of the infirmary. He needed everyone to hear, but he wasn't about to try and drag Balthazar away from his brothers, or move Bobby away in case Cas needed him again.

It had been steadily getting colder and colder as the heat was sapped out into space and the cold leaked in. When everyone gathered, each of them wore layers upon layers of clothes, and then wrapped in their blankets. According to Bobby, Cas' body was still far too cold and Dean had quickly donated all of his own blankets to the cause, knowing that no amount of layering would take away the chill from Dean's blood.

They were all huddled together, and each of their combined breaths let out a fog of moisture in front of their faces, a constant reminder as to how frigid it had become. The Captain looked over his assembled crew, his face grim, "As you're all keenly aware, we've run into a bit of a situation. Engine's down. Life support's on the fritz, and I got nine people here all wanting to breathe. The truth is, we don't have many options at this juncture. So…Instead of focusing on what we don't have, it's time to talk about what we do have. And what we have are two shuttles. They're short range, so they won't go far. But they both have heat, and they both have air. They will last longer that what's left in the Impala."

Anna looked up hopeful, "Long enough range for us to reach someplace?"

Dean swallowed, "No."

From his position leaning against the doorframe of the infirmary, Bobby blew out a breath, "Okay. So where will we be flyin', then?" Dean took a small moment to mentally thank Bobby for sounding so calm and reasonable in all of this. At least one of them should be able to keep his shit together in a crisis if the Captain is one hair away from a breakdown. Dean turned to address the preacher, "Just as far as you can get. We'll send both shuttles off in opposite directions, making our chances of being seen or picked up better…Now Balthazar, Chuck, Meg, you guys will be riding in Anna's shuttle. Sam, you and Bobby are going to take Cas and Gabriel in the other one."

Several voices shouted out in various protests before Dean shushed them all and continued, "Now listen, all of you. Balthazar, I know you want to stay with your brothers, but I need Bobby to stay with them in case of an emergency and Sam has to fly because he's the only other one besides Anna who can fly the shuttles," he stated, trying to sound calming and reasonable so that the frazzled Novak wouldn't have a conniption.

Sam didn't want to listen to more of this, "What about you?" he demanded.

Dean took a deep breath, "Four to a shuttle Sammy, you know that. Besides, someone has to stay here in case the signal gets us somebody and then has to call the shuttles back. Now each of you go get ready. Take only what you need."

It was logical, it was necessary, but that didn't mean that anyone in that room was happy with the arrangement. They were all too stunned with the turn of events to try and argue. Sam was too worn at that point to hiss, spit and scream at Dean about his self-sacrificing problem. Instead Sam glanced one last time at his brother and Gabriel before he moved off to start prepping things for them to go.

He marched up to the control room.

* * *

As everyone moved off to gather things, Anna walked up to Dean where he was still standing staring into the infirmary. Gently she got his attention by placing a soft hand on his arm, "Dean…" she started but she was cut off.

"Anna I want you to fly smart. Don't push too hard, and the life support should last you a good long while," he hashed out while not looking at her. She had known the Captain long enough at this point to see when he was crumbling.

"Dean, this isn't the ancient sea. You don't have to go down with the ship," she tried, but Dean shook his head stubbornly.

"She isn't going down. She isn't going anywhere….," he turned to her and gave her a small grin, "Meg will be worth something if you run into trouble. She's got a few credits on her head at this don't trust her, and don't let her take over the ship. Show her that famous Companion stamina."

* * *

_**Five Years Ago**_

"_Are you kidding me?"_

_"Nope. She said she was a Companion."_

_"And she wants to see our shuttle? OUR shuttle?"_

_Sam shrugged, completely as clueless as his brother, "Your guess is as good as mine, but she sounded serious."_

_Dean smirked, "Well, maybe she heard about the handsome young Captain and couldn't resist checking it out. Or me out, I should say."_

_"Yeah...sure. She'll be here at six. Since she's mostly coming here for you, then you can give her the tour. Trickster and I were going to work in the control room for a while", Sam said while rolling his eyes._

_Dean paused and looked hard at Sam's face, searching, "So...he doesn't make your senses tingle anymore?"_

_"I wouldn't say that exactly," Sam smirked._

_Dean's face crumpled in disgust, "Dude...don't tell me that! Just...make sure it's actual work you two are doing in there."_

* * *

_He led the Companion to the offered shuttle. Dean was still in awe at how she was able to move so gracefully in that heavy dress that he hardly took notice of the small smile on her face as he led her through the Impala._

"_Well, this is it. Nice, huh?" He flew both of his arms out in a grand gesture of welcome. The lovely red head looked around, noting the dust and somewhat musky smell._

"_Smallish," she commented._

_Dean shrugged at that, "Not overly. How much room do you really need for what you do anyway?" He mentally slapped himself for saying something like that to not only a perspective buyer, but a Companion at that. Oh well. At least Sam wasn't here to see him stick his foot in his mouth._

_Anna seemed to ignore the comment however and moved up to the cockpit of the shuttle. Daintily she ran her small fingers over the chair and then the control panel. Her back was turned so Dean didn't see the fond sparkle that went off in her eyes at the contact._

_Somewhat clumsily Dean tried to move the conversation back to business, "I've got a surveyor and his wife interested in renting this one. I'm just waiting to hear back," he lied. He was a pro at conning people thanks to his dad. If the Companion liked the shuttle, then Dean was pretty sure she was more than capable of dishing out to beat another "buyer". _

_In a bored tone Anna spoke up again, "What's her range?"_

"_Standard short. She'll break atmo from a wide orbit. Get you where you need to go, bring you back home again. She's space worthy, just like the rest of the Impala," Dean stated proudly in a sure tone. This was his baby they were talking about. Anyone who didn't want to be on this boat was loony in his book._

_Anna chuckled softly, "No need to sound so defensive, Captain. I prefer something with a few miles on it," she purred teasingly, "So, if we were to enter into this arrangement, Captain Winchester, there are a few things I would require form you. The foremost being complete autonomy. This shuttle would be my home. No crew member, including yourself, would be allowed entrance without my expressed invitation."_

_Dean nodded obligingly. It all seemed fair, "You'd get your privacy."_

_She nodded happily, "And just so we're clear, under no circumstances will I be servicing you or anyone who is under your employ," she stated firmly._

_Dean couldn't help but smirk, "I'll post a sign." _

_She smirked back, starting to warm up to the captain already, "I hope that won't be necessary. And one last thing I would insist upon is some sort of assurance that when I make an appointment with a client, I'm in a position to keep said appointment," she finished, raising one thin eyebrow as if waiting for him to challenge her._

_The Captain had to admit that it was fair for her to ask for all of this, but he wasn't about to just agree right away like some whipped boy, "That's an awful lot of caveats and addendums you've got there, miss."_

_She shrugged, but didn't offer any compromise. Dean had to appreciate that she had some balls for a girly Companion, "Right…I'll be sure to take that all into account when I review the applications."_

_Then she laughed. And just like that the shuttle felt a bit warmer and less dank, "Don't be ridiculous. You're going to rent this shuttle to me," she stated like Dean was making a big joke._

_Dean raised a questioning eyebrow at her, "And you figure this…how, exactly?"_

_She scoffed as if it were obvious, "You want me on your ship because I can bring you something that your fantasy surveyor or and other imaginary buyers you have on the line can't…a certain respectability. Based on what little I've seen of your operation, I suspect that's something you could use."_

_Oh, now she was going to insult his crew? "Fine. Let me ask you this, if you're so respectable, why are you even here? I mean, I heard that fancy ladies such as yourself do better be living among the rich and snotty, always there at their beck and call. So tell me…what are you running from? If it's Garrison trouble you have, you might want to consider another ship. Some of us on board here are…were hunters."_

_She laughed again and shook her head, "The Garrison has no quarrel with me. I assure you. And I also have no quarrel with those seeking a little freedom. You might even say that I long for a little freedom myself."_

_This made Dean pause. He looked her over again, seeing past the fancy face paints and layers of silk and taking a good look at the girl behind it all. He saw a loneliness there, a longing. Perhaps he had found another crew member after all. He nodded and reached out his hand, "Welcome to the Impala."_

_She reached out to grab his outstretched hand and they shook on it._

* * *

Anna had become his friend. He had been able to share things with her, share laughs, choked on the fumes when her scented candles became to pungent for his delicate nostrils, and right now he could see the same sadness echoed in her eyes. She didn't want to leave the Impala. It had become a home to her as much as it had for Sam and Dean.

"Hey, you better go get your shuttle ready. And try not to talk to much. It uses up air. Isn't any need for it." And he squeezed her hand before he waved her off.

* * *

Welcome Anna! Welcome :) Next chapter up tomorrow! It's gonna be all full of feelings, so be prepared =)


	9. Chapter 9

Notes: Here ya go! More feels and a bit of plot! :D

leahelisabeth: I had the same worry about Sam not wanting to leave when I wrote this a week ago (actually I'm about 5 chapters into the next story already!)so and I tried to address it in this chapter. But, alas, I needed it for plot purposes D'X We all know that Sammy would never leave Dean. Their bromance is far too strong! *crying it's so wonderful*

: Hello, hiya! I'm glad you like the switching back and forth! I can't tell you how much I worried that people would just be super confused, but then again, watching the show helps. I did try to make it as smooth as possible because there are actually a good number of readers who have never watched firefly! Oh yeah, enjoy MOAR feels! Bwah ha ha ha ha! * maniacal laugh*

Disclaimer: Don't mind me. No money to be made..._sniff_...

* * *

CHAPTER 9

_**A Few Hours Earlier**_

Finally tearing his eyes away from the infirmary, Dean made his way over to the control room where Sam was leaning over the nav. system. The younger Winchester noticed Dean's approach and turned to face his brother with a somber expression over his features.

"Everything's set and ready," he reported to Dean.

There was a slight pause as he and Dean looked at each other before he nodded and replied with a curt, "Good."

"I linked the nav systems of both shuttles into the helm, here." Sam paused and pointed at one of the larger red buttons on the panel, "When your miracle gets here, you just pound this button once. It'll call back both shuttles." Sam finished.

This time Dean didn't say anything and only nodded shortly, glancing at the button that Sam had pointed out. They stood there in silence for a moment more. Dean knew that Sam had a thousand things that he wanted to say, or shout, at Dean right now, but there really was no way around this. Even Sam had to realize that.

"Dean…"Sam started.

Dean quickly cut him off, "No, Sam. I'm sorry, but this is how it's going to be. End of story."

Sam tried again, "I don't want to leave you behind. I can't…"

"Sammy, listen to me. You are not abandoning me. You are trying to save all of us. We all have the best chance at survival if we all split up. I _have_ to be here," as Dean spoke he gripped Sam's shoulder firmly and caught his little brother's eye, trying to force reason and logic through.

"I also…I need you to fly that shuttle, Sam. I trust you more than anyone to get Cas out of here and to a safe place. Bobby and Gabriel too. They all have the best chance if you are the one flying them. And if I was on the shuttle too…then there is no chance," Dean finished, never breaking contact with Sam. He could see as all of Sam's pent up arguments flickered and died, removing any flame left in his eyes.

"Dean…"

"Go see to Gabe," Dean cut off. He wasn't about to get into a long goodbye at this point. There was too much to say, too little time to waste, and too little oxygen to last for all of the things the brothers had wanted to, but never got a chance to say to one another. Sam understood this and moved off to the infirmary to help Bobby with the transfer of their injured family.

Dean didn't turn around to watch him go.

* * *

Dean stood in the center of the catwalk, shuttle entrances on either side of him, as he watched his crew start trickling in the only escapes. Anna was already in her shuttle with Chuck, ready to go, and only waiting for Meg and Balthazar to get on board.

Just at that moment, Meg walked up the stairs from the hold, duffle bag slung over her shoulder, heavy with weapons as some gun barrels poked out of the open zipper. She spotted Dean and hesitantly moved over to him, "I went ahead and closed off all below deck vents to divert whatever is left to the bridge. It isn't much, so I suggest you seal off everything tight behind you on your way back up. Might buy you some more time," she reported, not looking him in the eye.

Dean smirked at her avoidance.

"And there's a suit for you. It's hanging in the foredeck. For when…you know. When you start turning blue and breathing becomes a conscious decision."

Dean made sure he caught her eye, "I won't be needing it, but thanks."

She flushed as if offended that he would even dare to think that she helped him in any way, curling her lip before quickly shuffling off to the awaiting shuttle, not even wasting breath to correct Dean as she went.

Behind him Dean heard approaching footsteps. He turned to see Bobby coming up from the infirmary, carrying a heavy bag of med supplies. Cas and Gabriel were already in the shuttle, but it looked like the preacher wasn't about to let himself be caught unprepared for anything.

He too stopped when he spotted the Captain on the catwalk, "You sure about this, boy?" He asked. He had that same look in his eye that Sam did. That self loathing at the prospect of leaving someone behind, "It's not too late to toss you on one of the shuttles. No one would think less of you for not wanting to die alone."

Dean scoffed at that, "Everyone dies alone."

Bobby didn't seem to have any sort of retort to that so he changed the subject, "Right, well, we'll be all set to go once Balthazar finishes up with his goodbyes. I don't even know how I'm going to pry him away when the time comes." Balthazar had been by his brothers side's every step of the way from the infirmary to the shuttle. He was frantic with need to stay with them until that very last moment when he would be wrenched away from them. The very image seemed so cruel to the preacher and everyone else, but in situations like these, survivors aren't the strongest, they are the smartest, and even more often simply the luckiest. There were no words of comfort to give Balthazar. All they had to rely on was their wits, their luck, and whatever hope that that could scrape up.

Dean stopped Bobby as the Sheppard turned to enter the shuttle, "Wait. I'll do it." He didn't wait for a reply before making his way to the entrance, but Bobby called after him.

"Hey! Take care of yourself, ya idjit." It got a small smile from the Captain, and Dean turned back to the shuttle.

* * *

The interior of the shuttle was nothing like Anna's. It was on the dusty side, smelled a little musty, but it would serve its purpose. It was also incredibly quiet. Bobby had to detach the monitors from Gabriel and Cas because they used up too much power. They would be relying on their own fingers to check their pulses once they took off. The only thing that Dean could slightly hear was the murmuring of Balthazar where he was seated on the floor between the two stretchers bearing his brothers.

Dean didn't know what the middle Novak was saying to them. Really it wasn't his business and also he was pretty sure that it would only serve to make him hate himself even more. Treading softly, he moved over to Balthazar's side and gently lay a hand on the man's shoulder.

"Balthazar…It's time." He stated simply, but his voice carried as much warmth as it could in this frigid ship.

Under his hand he felt Balthazar tense up, but he didn't start arguing. Instead he nodded to Dean and leaned over each brother, kissing them both on their brows before leaving the shuttle, not turning back to glance again. Dean could see the tear tracks on his cheeks as he ran by though.

Then Dean was alone with them. He looked over Gabriel, noting that he was still breathing. Then he looked over to Cas, sucking in a trembling breath when he did. He was hit by the memory from not even an hour ago when Cas' heart had stopped, and still Cas had not stirred in the slightest since that had happened. He was too still. Too quiet.

Dean kneeled down where Balthazar had just been, and brushed the back of his hand over Cas' cheek, testing his temperature. Too cold. Glancing around him, Dean spotted the pile of blankets that Bobby had brought on board and picked one out of the bunch to lay over the supine form. He doubted it would do much good. Cas already had five blankets stacked on him and they seemed to be doing nothing, but it made Dean feel slightly better.

He stared at the lax face for a moment. Outside he heard Sam's and Bobby's voices talking out on the catwalk. They would be coming in here soon, thought Dean.

He leaned over Cas, moving his mouth right next to his ear and whispered, "I'm pretty sure you can hear me, cause you're weird like that. So I'm going to give you an order that I expect you to follow….Don't you dare leave." Dean pulled back part way, just so that his face was a few inches from Cas'. Without stopping to think, he quickly moved closer and left a soft kiss upon the other man's dry lips.

He then pulled back completely as he heard the approaching footsteps of the others and quickly stood up and turned to them, "You guys all set then?"

Bobby nodded and pulled a chair over to the two stretchers, showing Dean that he would be stationed there for as long as it took. Sam also nodded while staring at his feet. With forced casual steps, Dean moved over to Sam.

"Yeah, so remember that this shuttle lags a bit on the left turbine when landing. I've been yelling at Chuck to get it done for months, but, you know…" Dean tried to smile, but he was pretty sure it came out as a grimace.

His brother didn't seem to notice though, "Yeah. I remember…"

Then Sam surprised him by launching forward and gathering him up in a hug. It didn't last long, and it took a moment for Dean to come out of his stunned surprise and return the gesture, but it carried more goodbye than either brother was willing to say at this moment.

They pulled apart and Dean exited and pulled shut the airlock door behind him. Both shuttles took off. Dean had one last thought that stood out among all others as he watched his crew leave.

Cas' lips were warm.

* * *

Dean took Meg's suggestion and shut the door to the aftdeck as he moved through the kitchen and into the foredeck area, closing each and every door on his way to the control room. Each slam seemed to echo ten times more loudly now that everyone was gone. It even startled Dean each time he heard the metal hit metal, no matter how much he expected it.

When he finally reached the control room, he moved over to the pilot's chair and sat down wearily. The numbness that had taken over his body had disappeared the second that the shuttled detached from the Impala and now he felt the cold in all of it's arctic glory. It had finally gotten to the point where Dean's teeth were chattering so hard from the cold that it was starting to hurt his jaw. Then something caught his attention out of the corner of his eye and Dean turned to see that it was a neatly folded blanket and a bottle of whiskey left out on the panel next to him.

Dean smiled to himself, thanking Sam and Bobby wherever they were now for the gifts. He wrapped the blanket around him first and then fumbled with his frozen fingers to twist open the cap on the amber liquid. The trouble of getting it open was worth it when the burn of alcohol made its way down his throat and settle warmly in his stomach.

Glancing out the window, Dean soaked in the stars. Even this close to death, they were still as pretty as ever. Maybe even more so. Lifting the bottle in a small toast to the window, Dean reclined back in the chair to wait.

* * *

_**Present**_

His fingers were too cold. His hands were shaking too much from the blood loss and the adrenaline. His vision was blurring so badly it was hard to even see his hands in the first place. Dean fumbled with the catalyzer as he leaned heavily upon the ship's turbine engine. He found the port where it belonged along the compression coil, but it was proving to be a bit difficult to ram it into place.

Absetly he wiped at his brow with the back of his hand, leaving a smear of blood above his left eye at the gesture. Blinking hard he tried to clear his vision enough to finish the task. All around him the P.A continued to shout its alarm and Dean mentally cursed it, wishing that it would shut up and save the ship power by ceasing its obnoxious roar.

He had nearly had the part installed, only half way pushed in when it finally slipped from his bloody fingers and dropped down under the flood panel and landing under the engine. Dean let out a sob of frustration, unable to believe that had just happened.

The alarm continued to sound.

* * *

Dun dun dun... What's this? Warm lips? And what is up with our boys?! Only kissin' when the other is asleep. They must think this is a sleeping beauty or snow white crossover. Sigh Muffins! Hope y'all enjoyed the fluff I added in there. What can I say, I'm a fan of man-pain.


	10. Chapter 10

Notes: Ah, yes. In this chapter we get to explore the origin of Meg, as well as find out how Dean got into his bloody mess in the first place for those of my wonderful readers who haven't seen the show before. Enjoy everyone!

ship. me: *So many apologetic huggles* I'llmake it all fluffy and good soon...ish...

leahelisabeth: And schmoop you shall have in the end! I love ending each story with schmoopy goodness Xd

Disclaimer: Look at all the fandoms I don't own! :D

* * *

CHAPTER 10

_**An Hour Earlier**_

The Impala sat still, as if anchored to that spot in space. The ship hadn't been this cold, quiet, dark, and alone since Dean had bought it those five years ago. As the frigid temperatures and dwindling oxygen lulled Dean into a deep slumber, a signal started to blip on the console.

The screen lit up to show a fuzzy image of a man's face through the static of the jammed wavelength. A halting voice sounded through the control room, "Firefly Impala…This is the private salvage S.S. Walden. Receiving your distress beacon, do you read?"

The message continued to repeat, the sound crackling as it continued to break up, but Dean remained motionless, not hearing the noise through his muddled mind. Then the static became more frequent, louder crackling that started to stir the Captain. Only a few more words of the distress reply come through before Dean groggily pries open his eyes.

Dean forced his heavy-lidded eyes to drag along the console until they fell upon the signal just as the transmission ended and the signal cut off. Clumsily Dean tried to orient himself and forced his frozen stiff body to sit up, his head lolling to the side to see the huge shadow of a ship pass by the window. The sight is enough to have him shooting out of his seat.

Frantically Dean slapped his hand down on the signal receive button and called back, his voice hoarse and dry, "Please. I'm still here. I need help." He croaked out.

There was a panicked moment when there was no reply, but then static broke through the silence again, "Hello? We're here to help, Captain."

* * *

Dean had done his best to re-hash the situation to the Walden's Captain, but it was getting damn hard to think straight as a headache started pounding away as the oxygen dwindled even further. The other Captain sounded mildly sympathetic through the whole explanation however, Dean could tell that they guy was a bit on the cautious side.

"I'm sorry for you troubles, Captain. They sound many. But you do understand that I can't invite you aboard my vessel. I don't know you," he stated calmly.

Dean swallowed hard, trying to lather up his throat enough to speak again, "I'm not asking for a ride. Just a little push." Dean could understand the other Captain's hesitance. Hell, if Dean were him then he'd be just as wary.

Over the telescreen Dean saw the other Captain nod, "Right. Your mechanical trouble. Your compression coil, you say?"

Dena nodded back, "It was the catalyzer."

A loud scoff came over the contact, "Not even the coil? Catalyzer's a nothing part, Captain." He laughed loudly, making Dean who, had become accustomed to dead silence, wince.

"It's nothing until you don't have one. Then it appears to be everything," Dean replied wearily. Damn near did seem to be everything, because without it, Dean had now lost his entire crew and was about to lose the only home he had ever had.

The other Captain seemed to get this and moved off screen for a moment. Dean could hear him talking shop in the background with another faceless voice. Then the Captain's figure returned to the screen, "Well, my mechanic says that we might just have something that could work for you. We just got off from a big salvage job off Ita Moon. Shit load of serendipity for ya."

A giant swell of relief rushed through Dean and he almost let himself crumple to the floor with it, but then the Captain's voice spoke again, sounding suspicious, "Trouble is…how can I know for certain your story's true? Ambush could be waiting for me and my people on the other side."

Rubbing a weary hand over his face Dean replied, "You can plainly see that both of my shuttles have been launched, just like I said. And by now you've scanned me. You know I have no life support," Dean reasoned while trying to keep his eyes open.

The other Captain still looked uncomfortable, but he nodded in agreement, "Well then I feel like perhaps we can do business, but I don't expect to see any weapons when we board," he requested firmly.

"And I _do_ expect to see that engine part before I open the door," Dean said just as firmly and waited for the other ship to agree. Then Dean hit the button to trigger the air-lock line-up between the Impala and the Walden.

* * *

Slowly Dean made his way to the hold, not trusting his dizzy mind to keep him upright should he move any faster. His breathing had become very shallow, enough that to anyone else it would look like he was panting slightly. Finally making it to the hold, Dean anxiously waited at the airlock door.

The face of the other Captain suddenly appeared in the airlock window, followed by his hand holding up the catalyzer. Without waiting for another shallow breath, Dean hit the control panel to open up the door.

As the doors opened, there was a tremendous rush of fresh air that came in from the other ship, and Dean savored every molecule of it, closing his eyes for just a beat, breathing it in. But when he opened his eyes again, he was greeted with three guns raised and pointed straight at him.

Cursing silently to himself, Dean raised his hands in surrender.

"Check him," ordered the other Captain. One of his men ran forward and started to pat down Dean, searching for weapons. As per the agreement, Dean had completely stripped himself of all of his knives and his gun, leaving them all back in the control room. Now he looked back bitterly at his own stupidity. He should have seen through the obvious trap.

The Captain continued to hash out orders, "Search the ship. Start at the cock-pit and work your way down."

Dean chuckled bitingly, "This what you meant by an ambush?" He hissed.

The other man smiled, "We're just verifying your story," then he turned to his men as they went to move up the stairs, "You find anyone on board that's not supposed to be, you shoot 'em."

Dean growled, his senses and anger coming back full force as the fresh air powered him up, "I thought we were going to be reasonable about this?"

The other Captain looked baffled, "Reasonable?"

* * *

_**FOUR YEARS AGO**_

Dean and Sam stood side by side at the foot of the ramp, hands raised in the air as two men and a petite woman stood in front of them, guns raised.

The leader turned to the man on his left and grinned a toothless grin, "He's gonna talk to us about "reason" now," he laughed.

His male partner returned the chuckle, "Yeah, that's a joke." The two men continued to kid around like bullies on a playground, so Dean took the opportunity to turn to Sam to formulate some sort of plan. It was damn convenient that every time bad guys caught them, they had to make jokes or go into some master evil plot reveal speech. Made the brother's escaped that much easier.

"Sam, which one you figure tracked us?" he asked in a hushed voice.

Sam didn't look like he even had to consider it, "The ugly one," he replied just as quietly, his eyes never trailing away from the pointed guns.

"Could you be more specific," whined Dean.

Then the leader spoke loudly at them again, some spit flying out from the gaps in his mouth, "Does we look reasonable to you?!"

Dean shrugged, "Well, looks can be deceiving."

The second man piped up, "Not as deceiving as a low down dirty…deceiver!" He shouted.

Sam noticed the short woman roller her eyes dramatically at this, clearly hating it as much as the brothers whenever that guy spoke.

Dean grinned at that and turned to his brother, "Well said, sir. Wasn't that well said, Sam?"

"Had a kind of poetry to it, Dean," Sam responded deadpan. This time Sam saw her smirk at the brother's comments. Sam nudged Dean and gestured with a pointed look at the woman. Dean caught on.

An impatient grunt sounded from the second man, "You want I should shoot 'em now, boss?" he asked eagerly. On the other side, the leader's smirk grew and he raised his gun higher. The woman's smirk disappeared and she elbowed the man next to her angrily.

"God, did your parents drop you on your heads when you were little, or did they feed you antifreeze? You can't shoot them until they tell us where they put the stuff," she hissed and elbowed the leader again for good measure.

Sam and Dean exchanged pointed looks again. At least one of the bandits had some smarts. They could work with that, though.

The leader didn't seem to know that he was just insulted and instead nodded in agreement, "Oh! That's a good idea! Tell us where the stuff's at so I can shoot you!"

The look on her face was enough to pull a smirk out of each of the Winchesters.

Cautiously, Dean raised his hand like they were in grade school. Obligingly the second man pointed to Dean to hear the question.

Dean cleared his throat, "Uh, I have a comment, or a point of interest really. Um, offering to shoot us might not work so well as an incentive as you might imagine. Anyway, we've hidden it. So, you kill us, you'll never find it."

Meg's smirk returned, "I found _you_ easy enough," she purred, clearly not at all daunted by the idea.

Bingo.

Dean put on a thoughtful face, "Yeah. Yeah you did, didn't you?...How much are they paying you?" He asked suddenly, and Sam tried to stifle a chuckle next to him.

The two male bandits exchanged confused glances, clearly unsure of what was happening here. The woman however raised an eyebrow, obviously intrigued.

Dean dove for the opportunity, "I mean, let's say you did kill us. Or didn't. There could be torture. Whatever. But somehow you found the goods. What would be your cut," he asked her.

Without missing a beat she answered, "Seven percent, straight off the top."

Both brother's widened their eyes in genuine surprise. That was some shit pay. The woman seemed to notice their surprise and jumped to her own defense, "What? So what?" She growled.

Dean coughed lightly and shuffled his feet, "Hmm? Nothing. Not a thing. No, I just…," he turned to Sam he glanced back, "That seem low to you, Sam?"

Muffling yet another smirk Sam nodded, "Indeed. That's below minimum wage for a contract job, even on the backwater planets."

The leader piped up, "That ain't low! Seven percent is standard!" The man next to him started counting slowly on his fingers as if trying to figure something out.

Dean scoffed, "Wow. If seven percent is standard then I am paying Sammy here way too much."

Curiously the woman spoke up again, ignoring her two bandit buddies, "How much do you pay him, anyway?"

The leader growled at the question and turned to Dean, clearly not wanting to anger the woman. Perhaps he was scared of her?

"Knock it off," he shouted.

Applauding himself mentally Dean bounced on the back of his heals in an innocent gesture, "Look, forget I said anything. I'm sure you're treated very well. You get the perks. Got your own room ,being a lady an all…"

Dean noticed her sour expression at that.

"No? You share a bunk?" He asked incredulously.

She gestured with her head to the second man, her lips curling in disgust, "With that one," she muttered with contempt.

The leader finally caught up with what was going on and started to get really nervous, "Meg, this ain't funny," he said, voice trembling nervously.

The woman, Meg, spared him a small glance, "Yeah, notice how I'm not laughing."

Knowing that now was the time, Dean stepped forward with his offer, "Listen, Meg, you move on over to this side, we'll not only show you where the stuff's at, we'll see to it that you get your fair share. Not so sad seven."

She glanced over cautiously and paused to consider the offer, "Private room?" she asked at last.

Emphatically both brothers nodded.

Both the leader and the other man erupted angrily, "Meg!"

Dean dove right in again, "Your own room. Full run of the kitchen. A cut from every job. The whole kit n' caboodle."

The leader stepped forward threateningly, "Meg, I ain't askin'…"

Without even looking away from the brothers, Meg lifted her gun and shot both of the bandits in the leg, "Shut up," she ordered and turned seriously to the Captain, "So if I agree, it'll be you scratch my back, I kill for you, kind of deal?"

Dean grinned, "And a complementary breakfast each morning."

Meg pondered it a moment more.

"How big of a room are we talking here?"

* * *

_**An Hour Earlier**_

The Captain of the Walden and Dean were having a stare-down when the men started to return to the cargo bay. Immediately the other Captain turned to them waiting for a report.

"Ship's clear, Captain," reported the first man. Dean recognized him as the other voice from the telescreen call.

"You check the engine room?" The Captain asked.

The lackey nodded, "It's like he said. Catalyzer's blown. That's all he needs."

Dean spoke up from the background, "You know anything that's worth anything's really right here in the cargo bay. So take a look around, decide what you think is fair," he offered. This whole situation was making Dean incredibly nervous, even downright afraid. He was truly alone and helpless at this point.

The other Captain turned and smiled menacingly, "Oh, that's already decided."

So fast that Dean didn't even see it coming, the Captain lifted his gun and shot off one bullet that flew right into Dean's gut.

The Captain of the Impala fell to the ground just as the blood started to stain his shirt.

* * *

Oh NOES! D: And only two more chapters until we get to start the next story! It's the remake of Ariel and it'll be called "Inside Job".


	11. Chapter 11

Notes: HOLY MOTHER OF ALL CHEESY CRACKERS! We Have Reached 200,000 WORDS! BWAH! How shall I celebrate?!

Ah, yes. And now the story comes full circle back to where we started, with Dean alone in the hold. I also threw in some shuttle time for tragic grins and sobbing giggles. Hope y'all like!

leahelisabeth: Yes indeed! War stories is one it's way! I can't wait to start in on it! Gah! Only five more chapters to Ariel, then off to the torture! Whoo!

andeare: Hiya! You are very welcome! I'm really having fun writing and it's just a crazy awesome bonus that I get to hear your thoughts :)

Rhiotre: Fist off, HELLO! HI! HELLO! And then second,*sniff* *sniff* I know! It's all so sad! D'X Here, have some of my tissues...don't worry. They're the good kind that are super soft!

Disclaimer: Dude. Srsly. Why must you torture me by making me write this out every day. It's like a punishment for writing the story in the first place.

* * *

CHAPTER 11

_Castiel remembers a time when he was young, five or six years of age. He had been sitting in the grass in the garden, his brothers playing nearby when it flew onto one of the branches in the yard. It was a simple brown sparrow, but to Cas it was one of the most fascinating things his young mind had ever encountered. Birds were incredibly rare on his home planet because it was mostly city and so few trees were left for any bird to inhabit. It was the first bird that he had ever seen._

_The flying creatures became an obsession for him. He quickly made Gabriel take him to the city library to take out as many books as his little arms could carry. For a young child, Castiel was a very proficient reader and even got books from the upstairs part of the library where all of the real books that adults read were kept. Not childish stories or those that only held only one sentence per page. Castiel was far too advanced for that. He wanted to know everything about birds._

_He studied it all. Every scan and image of bird feathers and physical structures, the variety of species on each planet as well as those theorized ones from Earth that Was. Whenever a televid show came up on their television, Castiel would sit and watch every second even if his brothers whined and pouted. The colors of the feathers, the variety of shapes, the behavior…it all enraptured him. _

_Then an ad showed up for the bird exhibit at the city museum. Bounding over to his brothers, Castiel had begged for ten whole minutes for them to take him before he realized that they had agreed to after the first time he asked. _

_Then came the day when they finally went. Castiel practically vibrated with energy. He had been recording the different species of birds that had flown into his garden for the last few months. It had only been three species, so Castiel was beyond excited to see even more in person and get to hear the different songs they would sing, watch them fly…_

_They stepped into the exhibit and his mouth dropped open in awe. The walls were covered in informational posters and pictures of spectacular avian creatures. There were bone models on stands dispersed around the room. And then what really caught his attention. There were hundreds of birds around the room on perches while people stood around them pointing and smiling._

_Releasing Balthazar's hand Castiel ran over to the one closest to them, an Eagle if his memory served him correctly. He had thought that they had gone extinct thousands of years ago! _

_Crawling through the legs of adults in the way that only children his size could do, Castiel made his way right up to the magnificent bird's perch and smiled up at it and waved happily to get its attention, but the bird didn't move. It didn't even blink. _

_He wanted to see it move, for it to make a sound, so hesitantly he reached his pudgy fingers to gently poke at it's side. It still didn't move. He poked harder. Nothing. But when he poked a third time the bird and the stand rocked dangerously together. That's when Castiel noticed that it's open eyes looked like they were made of glass, and that its feet were glued to the plastic branch on the stand. It was a fake._

_He pouted and turned to Gabriel who had come up beside him, "Where are the real birds?" He asked grumpily._

_A museum tenant heard the question and came over to them, "These are the real birds. We took dead birds and stuffed them so that they could be put on display here."_

_Horrified Castiel gasped, "They're dead?"_

_The tenant nodded._

_Castiel tore away from Gabriel's side and ran up to the next closest bird. This species wasn't extinct yet. In fact they were supposedly some on this planet. Without waiting this time he poked at its side. It was cold and hard just like the eagle. All of them were._

_With tears forming in his eyes, Castiel ran back to his brothers and buried his face in Gabriel's shirt, "Make them wake up, Gabey! Please!"_

"_I'm sorry Cassy-bear. I can't. It's too late. They died a long time ago."_

_Turning his head slightly to the side, Cas peaked another horrified glance at the "birds" around the room._

_Cold. Unmoving. Frozen in place for all eternity. Alone and glued to their perches. _

Dead.

Castiel launched up from the stretcher, panting hard as the last wisps of the nightmare drifted away.

"No! We're not too late!"

* * *

Dean watched as the man who shot him turned his back to him and announced coolly to him, "We're taking you ship." Then he started to instruct his crew to various tasks and ignored Dean as if he were already dead. A big mistake on his part.

"Billy, get that catalyzer plugged in. Jesse, call Stern over here. You and him'll pilot this piece of go se out of here." (Crap)

Dean quietly crawled over to one of the workbenches only two feet away from him where he and Sam had taped a gun to its underside after that time Crowley had taken over their hold.

"We'll get it as far as—"

The Captain stopped short as he heard the sound of a gun being cocked behind him. He turned to see an upright and magnificently pissed off Captain Winchester holding an unwavering gun straight at his head.

Not taking his eyes off of the other Captain, Dean addressed the Walden crew, "Jesse, don't call Stern. Billy, leave the catalyzer," he stated firmly.

The Walden crew looked nervously at each other and then to their leader for any indication of what to do. Their Captain looked back defeated, "Do as he says," and the lackey with the catalyzer sets it gently on the cargo bay floor, one hand raised away from the gun at his side.

Dean gestured with his head that the crew and their Captain moved into the airlock, gun never moving from where it was pointed at the man's temple, "Take your people and go." Then he maneuvered himself over to the control panel for the airlock while keeping his distance from the others.

Hands all raised in the air, the Walden crew shuffled defeated into the airlock between the two ships. Just as Dean was about to lock it up the defeated Captain spoke up, a small look of remorse on his face, "You would have done the same," he stated, but it didn't sound like he entirely believed it.

Angrily Dean glared back, "We can already see that I haven't. Now get the hell off my ship and I better not ever see you again or next time I won't be so hospitable," he spat and slammed his hand down on the lock button and watched as the faces of the crew disappeared behind the heavy door.

The very second they were out of sight Dean collapsed in a heap on the floor.

* * *

_**Where the Story Started...**_

The entire cargo hold echoed with the loud thud from Dean as he fell to the metal flooring. His face was ashen, his were clothes soaked through with sweat. His harsh breathing could be heard through the large room. There were no other sounds to answer back. No crew to come to his aid. Dean was completely and utterly alone.

Weakly he tried to lift his head from the cold surface. As his cheek roughly grated across the floor he thought he heard voices in the distance. Somewhere in the back of his mind he knew that it was impossible for there to be anyone else there. Perhaps these were the hallucinations that Sam warned him about.

As he crawled along the floor towards the stairs, the voices became louder and he felt himself get lost in memory as he struggled to remain conscious.

* * *

_**Present**_

"_Life support failure. Check oxygen levels at once."_

Grunting with exertion, Dean fished out the catalyzer from the pit under the turbine, putting an agonizing amount of pressure on his wounded gut. Once it was back in his shaking hands, Dean tried one last time to jam it into place among the compression coil. This time, he was able to work it into the damaged engine. It was arduous, but he did it.

The engine imediently started to glow and turn, finally offering his ship her power back. The damn alarm voice was cut off halfway through her mandarin version, making it so the only sounds left on the ship was that wonderful hum that Cas loved so dearly, and the heavy panting of Dean.

All around him in the engine room he could hear as more of the ship's aspects powered up. The life support started to function and already Dean could feel a little more warmth in the room, but as much as he wanted to just drop right here and sleep, he couldn't. He still had to call his crew back to the now safe and functioning Impala or their shuttles might run out of power before they found help. Or God forbid they were found by the S.S. Walden.

Once again Dean forced himself upright and stumbled towards the bridge, feeling each and every drop of blood that poured over his hand where he held the leaking bandage. Who the hell decided to have the engine room on the complete other end of the ship from the freaking control room? He thought agitatedly through his struggling. The corners of his eyes had gone from fuzzy to black. He wouldn't last much longer, but he wasn't done yet.

_Push._

Stumbling like a drunken man, Dean practically fell his way through the dining area, using each chair and counter top as a crutch along the way to keep him vertical. Now that the numbing cold was being replaced by the normal warmth of the ship, Dean could now feel every burning ache and stab from the bullet as it grated his insides with the constant movement.

He couldn't see anything anymore. His sight had gone completely black and he wasn't entirely sure if he was conscious at this point or just dreaming that he was still moving forward. But Dean knew his ship so well, every bolt and rusty panel of flooring, that he could find his way to the control room half dead and completely blind.

When he finally made it to the control room, he was no longer standing. He has been crawling since the start of the corridor and he wormed his way into the room. He couldn't see the red button that Sam pointed out, but he pushed himself in the direction.

The problem was, the button was on top of the panel, and Dean was on the floor. Dean tried to reach for the button, but he could only make it halfway before his body finally gave out, and he collapsed back onto the metal floor, his hand slipping down from where it was only an inch away from its goal.

His last semi-conscious thought was a prayer that his crew was found and were safe.

* * *

One more chapter to go! And that first bit with Cas in the museum was actually a modification of one of my own childhood experiences where I heard about a wild animal exhibit, but when my mom took me, I poked the black bear to find that it was stuffed and, even though I don't remember this part, my mom says that I started to cry. But seriously, it was pretty traumatic for a kid to go into a room full of dead animals that were all looking at you with glass eyes.


	12. Chapter 12

Notes: Last Chapter! And as per my own weird little tradition, it shall contain copious amounts of schmoop and d'aww moments.

leahelisabeth: Here ya go! Extra goopy schmoopy goodness XD Hearts and Hugs!

ship. me: Yay! You noticed my disclaimers! I swear, coming up with a new one each day is more challenging than some of my homework. And seriously!? A zoo?! That's just...messed up. What is the world coming to!? The only stuffed animals that should be allowed are the fluffy ones on my bed.

Disclaimer: Me? Own this? Ha ha! HA! Ha! Not so much! Ha ha ha! Ha...ha...ha...hm..._sniff_...ha?..._sniff..._*runs to corner crying*

* * *

CHAPTER 12

Slowly Dean blinked his eyes open only to be blinded by the brightest fucking light right in his face. What a welcome to heaven, he thought. Let us blind you with our heavenly awesomeness.

He blinked again and tried to actually see what was around him. First thing he could make out were faces. First he saw Sam at his side, smiling about something to his left. Then he saw Bobby and Chuck chuckling at something. He followed their gazes and saw Gabriel on a bed next to him, saying some joke or another to the others, but the barely awake Dean only made out the happy tone to his voice. Anna and Balthazar were off to his right side, looking over Dean and at Gabriel as he continued his anecdote. Meg was even there in the doorway, looking incredibly bored and pissed off at nothing in particular.

So far heaven didn't seem half bad, thought Dean. He had Sam and his crew and they seemed happy. He wasn't entirely sure what Meg was doing there, but he could deal as long as…wait. Where was Cas?

Blinking more frantically now, Dean scanned again, this time catching a glimpse of tousled dark hair behind Balthazar. It wasn't until the posh man adjusted himself from where he was leaned against the other bed that Dean was able to see blue eyes staring straight at him, a drowsy smile offered as well.

Dean smiled back. Good. His heaven still had Cas there too. Content, Dean relaxed again and closed his eyes, not falling back asleep but listening as the voices around him became clearer.

"I feel that maybe we should do something about all the blood. I don't think it's something he should see when he wakes up," commented Anna.

He heard Meg scoff, "He's seen plenty of blood before. It's not like he's gonna faint or anything."

"Yes, I'm aware that he's seen a lot, but sometimes it seems different when it's one's own blood," Anna reasoned.

Dean heard Chuck whimper from off in the corner, "It's not even my own and I'm a little queasy at the sight of it." Blood, thought Dean. There was no blood in heaven…

"Well I didn't shoot him, so don't look at me for scrubbing it! I'm not paid to be a maid," Meg growled, "If anyone should be doing any sort of cleaning, Chuckie here should take a bath."

"Hey! I can't help it! I sweat when I'm nervous!"

The three of them continued to argue quietly and then Dean was able to pick out Gabriel's voice from the background whispering, "I guess it's a fair bet to say that I missed the birthday cake."

Dean could hear Sam's chuckle, "It's okay. Nobody got to have any. It's still on the floor and some of the walls, though. If you want I'll run up there and scrape up a piece for you," Sam offered half jokingly. They were talking about the explosion. They were talking about his ship. Was he still alive? Seriously? After all that...

Gabriel's voice was full of awe when he replied, "You would do that for me?!"

"Of course. I'm in charge of rations this week and I hate to see so much semi-good protein go to waste."

Dean didn't have to open his eyes to know that Sam was smiling, but that didn't mean that he didn't want to see, so once again he pried apart his eyelids and turned his head to glance over to where his brother's voice was.

Gabriel seemed to notice the slight movement and grinned broadly at seeing the Captain awake before nudging Sam to turn around. His brother already had a big smile on his face as he turned, but it somehow managed to split even further upon seeing Dean awake.

"Welcome back, Dean," he greeted.

All around the room the others turned their attention to him, which normally would have made Dean slightly uncomfortable, but he was far too drugged out to care at this point.

"Did I go someplace?" Dean asked confused.

Bobby moved into sight, "Very nearly."

"When we got here Bobby did some quick triage to save you, but you were a mess… We thought we had lost you…" Anna trailed off.

Dean tried to shrug casually under the piles of blankets covering him, "Well, I've been right here." With the slight movement of his arm, Dean felt a tugging. He glanced down the bed to see where it was from when he noticed the Sam was hooked up to an I.V stand. In his muddled mind Dean didn't quite understand

"Sam, you okay?"

His brother seemed slightly amused by this, but nodded, "Yeah, Dean . I'm fine."

Clumsily Dean pointed to the tubing, "You got a… thing in your arm." He pointed out.

Sam nodded again, "Yeah. You lost a lot of blood. I'm just letting you borrow some of mine till you can pull your own weight again, you lazy leech."

There was a quiet grumbling behind Dean where the preacher was fumbling around with the I.V attached to the Captain, "You should put a sock in it, boy. You lost a lot of blood and you should be resting, not worrying over the crew. We're all fine."

But instead of listening to Bobby, Dean squirmed more, "Gabriel? You're…okay?"

The pilot snorted, "Of course I'm okay. Y'all forget that I have a few of my own tricks up my sleeves. Cassarole bought me enough time to heal up the worst of my own injuries. I'm nowhere near %100 yet, but I'm light-years ahead of you in the healing process, Cap!"

Dean nodded and slowly turned to where he had saw Cas before, hoping that it wasn't just his addled brain still playing tricks on him, but he was there, still alive and partially awake.

"Hey, Cas," he called weakly.

"Hello, Dean."

"Sonuvabitch, you made it."

Cas partially squirmed at the attention and looked up shyly, "Yes…I'm very surprised."

They stared at each other for a long moment. Just enough time for the rest of the crew to exchange meaningful glances around the infirmary. Then something registered with Dean.

"Wait….I thought I ordered you all off the ship? I don't remember hitting the call back button."

The crew all shuffled their feet nervously.

Sam spoke up first, "No, Dean. You didn't hit the button."

"I take full responsibility, Captain," Cas said forcefully, drawing Dean's attention back to him.

"Cas?"

Cas wiggled himself into a half upright position with the help of Balthazar, "I followed your orders…but I also didn't. You told me not to leave. So when I awoke to find that we had all been sent away, I asked them to turn around," he reported sheepishly.

Bobby chuckled, "More like threw a royal hissy fit that woke up Gabriel and wouldn't calm down until Sam finally broke the order and turned around. Damn near made himself pass out again."

Next to him Sam sighed, "The decision saved your life, Dean."

"Won't happen again, Captain," Cas stated firmly.

Dean sent Cas a grateful look, "Well…good. And thanks."

"I knew Sam was more than pleased to go back. It just took a bit of a push," confessed Cas as he slowly slumped back again, clearly still drained.

Meg was watching the whole exchange with a disgusted look on her face, "Well, hey, you know. We would have been back first, except there's something wrong with Anna's shuttle. She did something to it. Smells funny."Her nose scrunched up in distaste.

Anna rolled her eyes, "I told you, that's incense."

"So you say," she whispered back suspiciously.

"Oh! Captain, I saw that you fixed the ship! Good work," Chuck praised. Dean could practically see the hero worship blooming in the mechanics eyes. If anything was going to inspire the young man back into writing, it might just be this.

Then as if they were all in sync, Dean, Gabriel, and Cas all yawned widely.

That seemed to be enough for Bobby to start herding them out, "All right you nosey nellies. I have to insist now. They need their rest and you are all going to set them back a week in recovery if you don't get your tookises out of here now! There are walls and floors to scrub. All of yeh, get!"

Dean yawned again as they moved off and Sam was detached from his arm, "Yeah. I think the preacher might not be wrong about that one. Just gonna need a few…" Dean paused and looked over his feet to where the crew was half to the door, "You guys gonna be here when I wake up?" he asked already half asleep.

Bobby shooed them all out before moving up near Dean's head to look at one of the monitors, "We'll be here," he said gently as he watched Dean's eyes finally close.

Glancing over Dean, the Sheppard saw Gabriel had also already fallen into a heavy doze and was snoring softly. The pilot wasn't done healing, just like he had said. His bones were still broken, and he still had a killer headache, but all the internal damage had been repaired. At this point he was also drained of all of his healing mojo, and wouldn't be able to lend a hand with Dean for at least a week.

Turning around, Bobby watched as Castiel's eyes drooped from where they were still fixated on the sleeping Captain. The poor kid was still depleted of all of his energy. His body was still recovering from the shock of the overuse, and just like his brother, he wouldn't be able to help along Dean's recovery for at a good long while, if at all.

The extra work didn't bother Bobby in the slightest. He had felt a little useless on the ship for a while, but he was damn glad that he was here to do first aid on Dean while their healers were all but spent.

Lightly walking over to Castiel, careful that his footsteps didn't wake the other two, he leaned down close to the young man's face, "You get your rest too, you hear me? Ain't going to do Dean a lick of good if he has to worry about you recovering fully. He'll still be here when you wake up."

The slightest nod from the man and he burrowed further under the covers, his body temperature still quite low from its normal state, "Of course. As long as I don't wake up to a god awful museum exhibit." And then he was out like a light.

* * *

"Are you sure that you aren't cheating?"

"How would I cheat?"

"I dunno, you got some psychic mind reading mojo going on that you've been keeping quiet?"

Cas sent him an incredulous look, "You know that I'm still drained, Dean."

"….So you're saying that you would otherwise?"Dean hedged awkwardly, now incredibly nervous about what Cas might have "overheard" in the past few months.

"I believe it's your turn, Dean." Damn it, he avoided the question.

Dean turned his attention back to the half finished board game in front of him. Sam had confined the two of them to their rooms while they were both still recovering after the three patients started to explore the infirmary once the boredom kicked in. It was the volleyball game with blown up medical gloves that had been the straw that broke the camel's back, or pissed off Bobby to the point of shouting.

Dean had lasted only a few hours in his room before the tedium got to such epic proportions that he sneaked his way over Cas' nest, practically dying all over again and in need of some distraction.

What he found upon arrival was Cas with a pile of board games that Sam had brought by, knowing that Dean would sneak out. After getting over his original annoyance at his brother knowing him too well, really it was just creepy that his brother was so obsessive; Dean begrudgingly agreed to play one of the games with an equally bored Cas.

Dean picked up the multi faced dice and tossed them over the board and obligingly moved his piece the proper amount of spaces.

"Yellow."

Cas picked a card from the yellow pile, "It appears that you had another child. That makes eight babies so far. My congratulations on your virility and impressive sperm count."

"Thanks," said Dean dryly.

While Cas started rolling for his turn, Dean took a moment to look him over. The energy over-use did some lasting damage that made Dean's stomach clench every time he noticed it. Cas had dark circles under his eyes and had lost a very noticeable amount of weight. His hands also had the tendency to shake sometimes when he became fatigued, with was very often as of late. This time around there was no long rest that fully replenished him. It had been three days and Cas was suffering from what looked like bad narcolepsy to the rest of the crew, falling asleep even in the most uncomfortable positions completely dressed. However, Dean was glad to note today that not only had Cas stayed awake for the duration of this game, but he had also seemed to get the color back in his cheeks. Soon would come the great feasts that Bobby and Anna had planned to fatten him up again.

Starting to feel awkward while staring at Cas to long, Dean chose to instead glance around the room. He smiled at the little changes that he spotted around the room. He saw the suit from that party was still up on the wall like a favorite band poster. Then the tin foil shape collection had also continued to grow enough that there was little room left on the small table they sat upon. There was also a new bookcase that had been put in one of the corners, made for him by Bobby and Chuck out of old metal pieces, for his growing book collection. It was already pretty close to overflowing.

On the dresser Dean was surprised to see the condition of Fern. She was….green. And bigger. The dead leaves were all but gone, and the vines were now more untangled than tangled. Dean knew nothing about plants, but he knew that Cas had done a great job with the plant that originally given to him looked all but dead. And was that….?

"Cas, isn't that the type of flower that they had at the party?"

Cas looked over to the small carnation sitting in a cup next to Fern, "Yes. She is doing quite well. I was worried that the cold temperature would have harmed them, but the high carbon dioxide levels seemed to make up for the shock."

Again, Dean had no claim to botany know-how, but he was pretty sure that a cut flower would not still be in full bloom after all these months.

"Blue."

Dean sighed and pulled a blue card and read, "A twister destroys your home. Lose your house card."

"That is unfortunate," Cas commented dryly.

Just then the hatch opened and Sam and Balthazar hopped down the ladder, both with twin smiles on their faces. Balthazar gasped loudly and slapped his hands on his cheeks, "Oh my God, you two _are _having sex aren't you!" He shouted loudly, having just been talking to Sam on whether the Captain and Cassy were already well on their way to "coupling".

Dean and Cas exchanged less than impressed looks. Agitatedly Dean slapped down his cards on the floor, "Well jeez, Cas. You should have told me. I would have stopped the game."

"My apologies, Dean. I was also unaware. Perhaps it explains you overabundance of children," he deadpanned, and Dean wasn't sure if he was serious or not, but either way Cas was still awesome.

Sam and Balthazar both chuckled, "Well, anyway, we were just checking to see if you guys needed anything," Sam said.

Dean shrugged, "Nah, I think we're good for now…unless you have some pie stashed somewhere?"

"We still have cake-escrape away on the walls if you're interested," Balthazar offered. He received two matching scrunched up noses.

"Well then we'll just leave you two to your game. Enjoy," and they left the room.

Dean took his next turn, "Blue."

"Another child."

"Damn, seriously? Do you want it?"

Cas pondered it a moment, "I don't think it is a good idea to take in a child when my house was just crushed."

"Good point."

Then Cas paused in the rolling of the dice and looked up at Dean, "What _is_ the point of this game again?"

Dean rubbed a tired hand over his face, "I don't really know. Getting home in the end I think."

Seemingly frustrated with the answer Cas slapped down his cards in the same manner as Dean a few minutes before, "Then this game is entirely a waste of time."

Dean frowned, "Hey, you might draw a new card for a new house, or maybe you have like home-owner insurance or something, lemme check the instructions again." Dean made to reach over to the folded booklet set in the box, but Cas shook his head.

"No. I mean, that goal is already fulfilled. I _am _home. Am I not?" He asked, completely serious and very confused.

Dean paused where his hand was hovered over the box, "Yeah. Yeah, you're home," he pulled back and caught Cas' gaze, "Dude, you're right. This game is a monumental waste of time. How about go fish?"

Cas perked up, "I've never gone fishing! But...where will we find worms?"

* * *

"Yep. A real beauty, ain't she? Yes, sir. A right smart purchase, this vessel."

Dean just wasn't sure. It sounded good from where he was standing, but it just didn't feel right. The salesman seemed to pick up on his hesitance and moved closer and lowered his voice, "I'll tell you what, you buy this ship, treat her proper, she'll be with ya the rest of your life."

Dean sighed heavily and turned to the offered ship. It was a modern Winnebago transport model, all the new bells and whistles offered today and all at a reasonable price. Absently Dean scanned the area around him, eyes not really satisfied when they fell on the offered model.

Then he saw her. The salesman continued his spiel where he had turned back to the Winnebago and was gesturing widely with outspread arms, "I'm telling you, this is a steal!...Son? Hey, son?" He finally noticed that he had lost his audience as the young man was slowly walking over to the old Firefly model at the edge of the junkyard.

"Son, have you been hearing a word I have been saying?"

Dean hadn't, because he was too busy looking at the classic beauty in front of him. That was the one he wanted.

* * *

*gross sobbing* And we get to see how the Impala came to be home *more crying*

For those of you who are curious, the game they were playing was my own mutant version of Life because I only played that game once when I was in elementary school and I have little to no memory about it XD

So! Tomorrow I hope to post the first chapter of Inside Job! ( if by some miracle I get internet access tomorrow between exams I hope to post it. Please please, pretty please, let me get some interweb moments.) Check it out though! :)


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